Blood Roses
by invisible0one
Summary: Sequel to "Ghostly Games" Being thrown back into the arena is everyone's worst nightmare. Danny survived once, but who knows if his sanity can withstand a second round? Between the start of a resistance and rumors of District 13, it's safe to say the Capitol is more than out to get him.
1. Chapter 1

The tour through the Districts felt like it might as well have been around the world. Then again, to be separated from Sam after growing so used to having her safely in my arms at night, no matter how long or how far, would make it feel like she was a world away. At home, I rarely let her out of my sight. We both knew the shit was going to hit the fan within the next six months, and I'll be damned if I waste any of that time.

Districts Ten and Eleven were bearable, but that was only because I saw Ben and Fish again and was even allowed to speak with them. Although they were victor by definition, they didn't get a part of the victor's spoils or have anything to do with this tour. I was the official victor. That was the Capitol's story, and they were firmly sticking to it.

I hated having to recite the same damn speech to the people of every District. All that registered were the looks on their faces and the condescending thoughts they had about me.

Did I really know what they thought of me? No. But my mind was more than easily convinced by a few evil looks that may not have even existed to begin with.

I was on edge all the time now. Just knowing I was running out of time before the Capitol had it's revenge on me was enough to very nearly drive me completely crazy. The only thing that had kept me sane was falling asleep with Sam in my arms every night, and right now, even that had been taken from me. I don't know what was keeping me sane now, but anyone around me could tell it was quickly losing it's hold over my sanity.

There was a distinct rush to get through the last few Districts as I started lashing out more and more. I didn't hurt anyone, but I knew my eye's were starting to turn green at the stupidest of things. While I didn't do anything drastic, it was more than enough to remind people of the power I had when I wanted to use it.

Where the hell was the Box Ghost when you actually needed him? Misplaced aggression wouldn't solve all my problems, but it would help me keep my temper in check around all these people, at least enough for them not to have a reason to act afraid of me.

Finally, we started heading back to District 12 and the closer we got, the more agreeable I became on that last leg back.

There was an odd rumor floating about the train during the trip between 11 and 12. There was something about a 13th District being built up somewhere in the wilderness. No one knew anything substantial about it, but they all said the Capitol was building it to help with a resource shortage. I didn't know how they planned to fill it with people when they were done, but I knew it would either be with death threats and force or the promise of first class life for volunteers.

The first option seemed more likely.

The people running about the train said something several times, but no one would spill any more information about it when they were asked. I only knew about the resource theory from a little bit of… eh… research. Sadly, they'd caught on to me rather quickly and suddenly, there were ghost shields around every room. I could only enter through human means and, naturally, most conversations were cut off when I did.

* * *

The last speech was over, the last friendly dinner had been eaten, and I could finally go home. I could finally see Sam and regain my lost sanity. I didn't go to my home in the Victor's Village, I knew everyone I actually cared to see would be at my parents' home waiting for me to return.

I lived in the Victor's Village now even though it was farther away from the Fenton Portal. I had farther to go in order to get back to bed in the dead of night after sending some idiot back to the Ghost Zone, but it drew the ghosts away from the majority of the population when they went looking for me. I was in the outskirts of the District now rather than being in the middle of it.

The months moved by, coming closer and closer to the time of the next round of Hunger Games. Two moths before the Games, an announcement was made.

"There have been rumors spreading around the Capitol that the three victors of last year's games are at odds with one another as to who really deserves the honor and glory of winning the Hunger Games." Warning, bullshit alert. There was no honor in winning for us, it was just survival and we sure as hell didn't give a damn if we had to share the "glory" of winning the Games. The announcer continued with the fabricated story. "In order to remedy this and give glory where glory is due, the three victors of last year's Games will be entering the arena again to battle it out for the crown once and for all."

I didn't bother sticking around for the rest of the broadcast. I took to the sky, trying to clear my head. I knew I could win again easily, but to be forced to kill again? I didn't know if I could do it.

More importantly, could I really afford to leave my town again? Sure, mom and dad had gotten better at hunting, but they couldn't quite take up the slack on their own if I left. Even with Sam, Tucker, and Jazz, they'd still have a hard time keeping the ghosts where they belong.

Sam found me sitting on the roof of the school an hour later.

"You okay?" She sat beside me and held my hand in hers.

"Yeah." I didn't look her in the eyes, I couldn't do it right now when I was lying. I wasn't okay, not by a long shot. "How did you find me?"

"How many times have you brought me out here?" She smirked. We'd been here a lot lately, it was the second highest point in the District and I'd told her the view helps to clear my head when the flight alone doesn't. "It'll be okay Danny."

I wrapped my arms around her tightly and didn't want to let go until the sun finally rose and she was fast asleep in my arms.

* * *

_YAY FOR SEQUELS! :D_

_And before I get any questions about the District 13 thing, when I said this was before the actual HG series in the first part, I meant WAY before it. :)_

_Comments and feedback are as welcome as always!_

* * *

_Invisible One_


	2. Chapter 2

_Before we begin, I'd like to warn you all that, unlike the previous story, this one will be changing viewpoints. Since it didn't do this in the first story, I will put the POV at the start of each section. :)_

* * *

**Asa**

He'd run off again, it was getting harder and harder to keep track of him. When the announcement was first made, he'd tried to run from it. He knew he couldn't escape going back into the arena, but he still tried running anywhere he could get to.

The worst part? He didn't always physically run, half the time he would just disappear into his own mind. It was easier to keep track of him that way, but it was so much harder to help him. When he returned to the real world from the imaginary place he'd built to protect himself, he often refused to talk about it. At least when he really ran, he'd talk to me.

People liked to ask me what was going on, as if I knew everything about him. They didn't understand that even after eight years of the strongest friendship, I still couldn't read his mind no matter how hard I tried or wanted to. They didn't understand that even though we were more than just friends now, I still didn't know what was going on.

Ben was hiding in the empty cellar of the Victor's cottage closest to the electrified fence closing us in when I finally found him. He'd pulled his knees to his chest, and had the situation been less serious, his height would have made his position almost comical. He'd been running off more and more frequently lately as the next reaping day drew closer and closer and every time he'd be in this same position when I finally found it. I'd only recently found out about some mental problems evident in both him and his family tree, it wasn't something he'd wanted to talk about unless it became a problem like it was now. I had a feeling that in combination with the trauma the Games left in general is what was bringing out this reaction.

I sat down beside him and put a hand on his back. "It's okay, Ben." His head came up ever so slightly at the sound of my voice and I saw tears in his eyes. He'd never done this before.

He looked me dead in the eyes. "What are you going to do?" He'd asked me that a million times, but he always shut down when I tried to dig farther.

"What am I going to do when?" I suspected he'd close himself off to me again, but I had to try.

He surprised me, and actually answered me, He couldn't look me in the eyes, but he answered me; it was more than usual.

"What will you do when I'm gone?"

"I'll do the same as I always do, Ben. I'll wait for you to come back, even when it seems like it's not going to happen." I'd done it before, and I could do it again if I had to.

"And if I don't come back home?" The small tear drops in his eyes were threatening to fall. I've only seen him really cry once when the first relationship he actually gave a damn about broke apart on him. This was threatening to be the second time and I was going to prevent that if I could.

I smirked at him. "I guess I'll just have to kick your ass when I meet you again, won't I?" He laughed for the first time in weeks. By now, it was such a rare and beautiful sound, it brought what had to be an incredibly stupid grin to my face.

"Thank you," he said softly. He pulled me close and my head rested on his shoulder until someone else finally found us huddled together some hours later.

Reaping day, or Day of the Damned as I liked to call it, came for us at the speed of light in my opinion. I wasn't ready to have Ben torn from me again, and he was in no shape to lose me again so soon. We'd grown up together and even though he'd only been gone for a few moths last time, it felt like so much longer and it was hard to have him leave after having him by my side for so long.

His name was called, and he walked up to the stage as slowly as humanly possible, and once he got up there, he didn't break eye-contact until the next name was drawn.

Mine.

* * *

**Fish**

Reaping day.

This day last year was still fresh in my mind. The outcome would be the same to me, once more I'd be thrown into the Games alongside Danny, Ben, and the other unlucky souls that got their name picked.

All around me, the families with only a girl to worry about being picked as tribute were a depressing mix of joyful that their daughter was safe for another year and guilt filled to know they were celebrating that I was doomed to the bloodbath they called The Hunger Games once more.

There was only one name in that damned bowl; why they even bothered to make a show out of drawing it, I will never know. I was heading up to the stage as soon as her hand reached for the bowl. There was no way in hell I was going to be the Capitol's idea of a second-time tribute if I didn't have to be.

I stood on the stage, standing tall, defiant. There was no hint of fear or sorrow in my eye as I waited for the male tribute to be announced.

The name of the unlucky soul was drawn, opened, and finally read. "Simon White."

I fought to stay standing tall as my boyfriend made his way to the stage. It wasn't a serious relationship like Danny had with Sam, but it still hurt see him up there with me more than it would if it had been anyone else. He was frightened, anyone with eyes could see that, but he tried to stay as strong as he could as he approached me.

Neither one of us were really listening to the rest of the speech, just standing there silently, not bothering to answer any questions. Right as I could feel the lines of seemingly endless bullshit winding down, I had an idea.

The cameras were about to cut off when I leaned forward and kissed Simon. It felt weird, it wasn't something I'd done before, but I did it anyway knowing it would piss the Capitol off, make the Districts feel sorry for us, and make the boy next to me happy all in one fell swoop.

We were pushed from the stage and allowed the usual formalities; goodbyes to the people we know and all that jazz. We boarded the train and as I walked about the carts and familiarized myself with the train, I did one of those things that was bound to make every person on this damn thing think I'd completely lost my mind.

_"I like German sparkle party._

_Very German sparkle parties._

_German, German sparkle party._

_Do you like to party party?_

_Yes, I like to party party._

_Do you like to dancey dance?_

_Yes, I wore my part pants._

_I like German sparkle party_

_Very hardcore German sparkle party._

_German German sparkle party._

_Hardcore sparkle party._

_Yes I wore my rubber boots,_

_Yes I wore my rubber boots,_

_Rubber boots to dancey dance,_

_Rubber boots and party pants!_

_HAHHAHAHAHA!_

_Do you like to dance?_

_Yes I like to dance._

_Do you like to party?_  
_I love to party!_

_Do you like to sparkle party?_  
_I love to sparkle party._

_Do you like to dancey dance?_

_Yes, I wore my party pants.._

_Party pants,_

_Party pants_

_Sparkle party_

_Sparkle party_

_Feels good to dance,_

_Feels good to dance_

_Very nice to dance,_

_Hard-core dance_

_Hard-core dance_

_Hard-core dance"_

The looks I got while singing that were priceless. People made it very hard not to stop singing and just crack up right then and there. I'd have to do this more often, it was so much fun to make people think I was mentally unstable. I could tell by the looks on their faces this was going to be one of those moments that no matter how many times you remember it, all you can think is "What the hell?"

I was still in a good mood as I made my way to go view the recaps of the reaping.

My jaw nearly hit the ground when I saw a distinct pattern in the tributes of the last three Districts.

The less educated people in how the Capitol worked would think it was a coincidence, but I knew better. Nothing that happens here is a coincidence.

Nothing.

* * *

**Danny**

I stood on the stage in my ghost form even before the reaping started, I just wanted to get this over with. The people were gathered, the retarded decorations proclaiming more festivity and celebration than anyone with half a brain actually had.

I waited silently as everyone went through the formalities of the speech and the drawing of my name, even though I was already on stage.

My silence was broken as the name of the female tribute was called out.

"Samantha Manson."

I screamed out, barely registering what I was doing or saying. I must have lashed out because the next thing I remember is a sharp shock in my side and landing powerless on the ground.

Damn Plasmius for making that damned thing. Only he had the technology to take my powers, even if it was temporary.

I was practically thrown into the train once they had the footage they needed. The hum of what could only be a ghost shield came to life around the train to hell.

Sam found me minutes later and led me back to my room where we just curled up together on my bed. For hours, we just laid there together, in one another's arms as we were sped to hell of the living.

All I could think was one think.

The Capitol is fucked now. This will not go unpunished.

* * *

_On the German sparkle party thing...don't ask...I don't even know... My cousin (who is actually the basis for Fish) showed that to me... It had to be done...it just had to... :P_

_I don't own German Sparkle Party, by the way, but you are free to go look it up if you are curious..._

_Comments and feedback are as welcome as always!_

_For this next bit, I'm issung a **Minor Spoiler Alert.**_

_I had someone mention that District 13 was built and destroyed before the Hunger Games were introduced in the series. All I have to say to that is history repeats itself. There will be an explanation for this eventually. You may not get it until the very end of this whole series, but there is a reason I've written it in that way. :)_

* * *

_Invisible One_


	3. Chapter 3

The Capitol was far from my good side when I awoke the next morning, and they only dug themselves a deeper grave when I caught sight of the tributes for this year's Games.

It was one thing to send the Victors back in, it was another to try and force them to fight against the people they loved.

That damned city would be lucky to still be standing by the time I'm done with it. All hell will break loose, and soon at the rate they were going. You'd think after last year they'd know not to piss off a half-ghost hybrid. It was going to be even worse this year since everyone already knew my secret. The Capitol was in for one hell of a ride.

I felt Sam move next to me and forced my mind away from plots to burn down the Capitol. It was kinda scary that I was thinking about that anyway, that was starting to fall way too damn close to what Dan would do. If the Capitol brings me to the point of becoming that jackass, they will be the first to know. Sam grabbed my hand and looked up at me inquisitively.

"You okay?" It was hard to believe she could read so easily, but then again, she had never been the clueless one; that was always me.

"Just a little pissed off at the Capitol." Sam smirked up at me before kissing me and finally responding.

"I'm not too worried, you're the expert at getting even." I laughed, knowing it was true; my past experiences with Vlad could attest to that with ease.

I sighed, stroking her hair for a few minutes before chancing a glance at the clock. We were supposed to be at the dining cart by nine and the clock informed me we had nearly an hour before we could be just late enough to piss our escort off. Fifteen minutes was generally the rule; late enough to piss her off, but early enough that she couldn't find it within herself to really yell at us. Even so, I'm half convinced she'd started telling us to get there half an hour earlier than we needed to be in order to ensure we were on time.

My mind kept wandering to the upcoming Games, wondering what the hell I was going to do if I lost Sam. I'd likely go slightly crazy first, then God only knows what could happen. The loss of her alone might be enough to turn me over to the dark side, to turn me into Dan. Life was so much easier when I wasn't constantly worried about what might flip the switch and bring Dan out into the open, into the real world and this time stream. These people didn't have a clue what I could do if I really wanted to and they should be damn glad for it too.

8:30, time to actually get my ass out of bed and get ready. Sadly, that meant letting go of Sam too, something I hated to do with what was coming our way. Nothing was guaranteed for us anymore, not even the breakfast they were technically required to give us. Life sucked and that was putting it lightly, a little too lightly. The Capitol said I'd either have to let Sam die, or leave my town unprotected; that was the game they were trying to play with me.

The thing about games though is that the rules can be changed. I think it's more than time to change the rules of this game. A game is only fun for as long as the players have choices they can make, whether they are meant to be made or not.

Sam met me in the hallway as I finally started to make my way to the dining cart. She grabbed my hand and refused to let go until we were seated, and even then she reached for my hand as often as she could get away with. She was just about as willing to let me out of her sight as I was to let her out of mine. The shit was hitting the fan, there was no getting around that; all we could hope for was to find a way of flinging it right back in the faces of all the various assholes orchestrating this whole thing.

I let my mind wander as we ate, Sam's hand being the only real thing keeping me rooted to the real world. I couldn't help going back the memory of the last time I saw Fish.

While I was visiting District 11, Fish took me out to the old graveyard just outside the main center of District life to visit her younger sister's grave. The site itself was nothing special, but that didn't hinder the meaning it held for Fish and anyone that knew the girl.

I was amazed at how well Fish held it together even though I could clearly see the tears hiding just below the surface. I could tell she was strong, but only until there was no one around to see her break down.

There was one moment that stuck in my head with the kind of crystal clarity that only a few memories ever achieve.

_"This was no accident, no matter how hard they try to claim it was. I've been on the same route a million times in boats in way worse condition than hers with no issue. She would never go near the lake unless she had a life jacket on. This wasn't an accident. We stopped playing by the rules, so the Capitol did too." She looked up at me, a spark in her eyes that I didn't know whether to be afraid of or not. "I'm done playing by the rules. Are you?"_

I remembered my own family back home as the memory passed; I couldn't help but wonder if they were really safe. It was my full intention to break every damn rule I was expected to play by, but how much danger would that leave the people I care about in?

Then again, they couldn't do a whole lot worse than what they were doing to Sam, so they didn't have very far to go if I pissed them off too horridly much.

Not that I planned on making those morons happy. By the time I'm done with them, their misery alone would keep Spectra looking young until the end of time and then some.

Our breakfast period ended and I wandered back to my room, despite the pleas of my escort to walk about and socialize. I just wanted to think, with only Sam as any form of company. I wasn't expected to do anything today, so there was no way in hell I was actually going to do anything.

I kept daydreaming about a better world, one where no one had to deal with the Games and the loss of a child by government hands wasn't the worry of every parent in the country. A country where if you wanted to visit a different District, you did and no one would stop you with five and a half million laws designed to keep you in one place.

A life without the Games; a life without power hungry leaders. I could bring that around if I tried; as long as Plasmius didn't try to stop me I could probably do just about anything. The only thing stopping me was the cost. I didn't know what I'd have to give up to get there, and I wasn't willing to risk lives that weren't meant to be lost if I didn't have to.

They all swore my hero complex would be the death of me at some point, but they failed to realize it was also what was going to keep them alive when the shit hit the fan. Keeping people alive and out of trouble was my job, whether I knew them or not. I wasn't willing to risk them just to get what I wanted out of this world. How far did that stretch though? Did I really have a right not to try if people were willing to risk themselves if it meant the end of the daily horrors of life now?

Sam would have the answers for all this, but I didn't want to worry her. If I could find a damn good reason to risk it all, maybe I would, but until then I wouldn't do much. Maybe it was selfish of me to put my values above what was probably best for the people, but I couldn't help it. How do you go from years of doing nothing but protecting people to putting them in danger, even if it is for their own good in the end? Only undeniable proof that people really wanted this would be enough to send me down that path.

Night fell and as the train pulled into the station bright and early the following morning, I was met once more with unimaginable crowds. God, I hated all this attention; I swear I couldn't have made a run for it if I tried, even without the ghost shield. Someone had managed to take my parents' technology and make it small and portable. There was no escape for me yet, not without pointing out the one flaw with using ghost shields to keep me contained: my parents had yet to make it effective against my human half. As a ghost, I wouldn't be able to get through that shield if my life depended on it, but as a human all that happened was a slight tingle and I was through without any complications with my powers. That wasn't a weakness I wanted to expose yet, odd are it'd be more useful in the Games.

We arrived at the apartment and found that somehow, some way, Fish had managed to sneak up to our floor for a visit. She smirked as she saw me and that's when I noticed it.

The last time I'd seen her, she had only a simple piece of cloth to cover her missing left eye; it was nothing fancy then, just something to keep the empty hole in her face out of sight. Now, however, she had an eye-patch to cover it up. Not only that, but it had my insignia.

"Like the eye-patch?" If it were anyone else, I would have sworn she was mocking me but with Fish, it was just her normal attitude. "My designer gave it to me on the train, told me it would have more impact than I realized." She shrugged.

For once, I wasn't completely clueless as the meaning of her words sunk in.

_"I'm done playing by the rules. Are you?"_

* * *

_GAH! LATE UPDATE! D: I'm so sorry! Turkey Day has kept me busy and a few things have been hitting the fan for me... (Time to go rant in a one-shot or two... :P)_

_Anyways, comments and feedback are as welcome as always! :D_

* * *

_Invisible One_


	4. Chapter 4

The country was more than ready to change, all it really needed was a catalyst, something to set off the chain reaction and force it to move towards a better place. In all honesty, though it really ought to have been obvious, no one much liked seeing children sent off to their graves every year the only reason it had gone on so long without a problem was the introduction of one simple thing: Fear. It doesn't matter much what you can and can't do, so long as people fear you whether their fears are well founded or not.

For example, if you have the power to send children to their deaths each year without raising much of a riot, people naturally begin to fear you, often assuming you have more power than you truly do. Half of the Capitol officials were well aware of the fact that there wasn't really as much power within the Capitol as the people of Panem believe, and hence, they understood the need to dispose of last year's victors. Should people begin to hope that multiple people could survive that arena, they would slowly start to wonder why they couldn't stop the death all together. If they found that mindset...well control would slip and the shit would hit the fan for the Capitol.

That was the understanding of half the Capitol, the other half was just as brainwashed as the rest of the country. They fully believed the Capitol really had as much power as it seemed to.

It's amazing what blind faith can do for you.

It's also amazing how quickly it can screw you over.

* * *

_Dear boss, I write this note,  
__For to tell you of my plight and at the time of writing,  
__I am not a pretty sight.  
__My body is all black and blue, my face a deathly grey,  
__And I hope you'll understand why Paddy's not at work today._

She ran faster than what should have been possible, jumping over the bricks laying scattered all around. The bricks reminded her of the latest work accident and she nearly laughed as the rhyme that was claimed to be made by the victim himself ran through her head.

_Now, when the bricks had fallen,  
__From the barrel to the floor,  
__I then outweighed the barrel  
__So I started down once more.  
__Still clinging tightly to the rope,  
__I raced towards the ground,  
__And I landed on those broken bricks,  
__Laying scattered all around._

Dani couldn't help herself as she started laughing and stopped in her tracks. The whole thing was hilarious, and the best bit was the same person that had turned the whole incident into a rather comical song was the exact same idiot that had gotten himself into such bad shape with an insanely moronic idea. She let her laughter out before resuming her fast pace; she could worry about that later, after she'd finished her task even if the giggles wouldn't completely leave her until she finally arrived.

_Now as I lay there moaning,  
__I thought I'd passed the worst.  
__But when the barrel hit the top,  
__Was then the bottom burst.  
__A shower of bricks rained down on me,  
__I didn't have a hope  
__And in the great confusion,  
__I let go the bloody rope._

For a normal person, running from one side of the worksite to the other would have taken at least a half hour at top physical form, but for a ghost girl such a feat was nothing ever since Danny stabilized her. She was the messenger and spent her days running around. She seemed to be everywhere at once to everyone except those that actually needed her. As a result everyone heard her as she ran through out the site, singing now that she had put the whole thing to a tune. They heard every word, but slowly one got changed.

_It broke three ribs, and my left arm  
__And I can only say  
__That I hope you'll understand why Phantom's not at work today._

Somewhere, somehow, it went from a humorous tale of a unthinking builder, to a metaphorical downfall of the Capitol at Phantom's hands. From there, it morphed still, as it went from being nothing more than a grain of hope, to one of the symbols of the rebellion.

And so, the builders trapped working on District 13 started to constantly sing the tale and though they didn't know it at the time, the officials overseeing the construction got to watch as the sparks of rebellion finally started to catch the dry wood sitting just below.

They got to watch as the rebellion started and they heard the hope growing from the very beginning. They were just too blind and deaf to see or hear it. They could have stopped it, but false power has a way of going straight to your head.

Dani was not nearly as clueless as to what the simple tale had become, so as she ran back and forth, carrying out sometimes pointless tasks, she made sure to sing at every stop. She made sure to sing of the metaphorical downfall of the Capitol and how it would be at the hands of Danny Phantom.

And to think all it really took to kindle the fire into existence was the poor tale of one unthinking worker.

_Dear boss, I write this note  
__For to tell you of my plight  
__And at the time of writing  
__I am not a pretty sight.  
__My body is all black and blue  
__My face a deathly grey  
__And I hope you'll understand  
__Why Phantom's not at work today.  
_

_While working on the thirteenth floor  
__Some bricks I had to clear  
__And to throw them down from off the top  
__Seemed quite the good idea  
__But the foreman, he would not agree,  
__He being an awful sod.  
__He said I'd have to cart them down the ladder in my hand._

_Well, clearing all those bricks by hand,  
__It seemed so very slow  
__So, I hoisted up a barrel,  
__And secured the rope below.  
__But in my haste to do the job,  
__I was too blind to see  
__That a barrel full of buildin' bricks  
__Is heavier than me._

_So when I untied the rope,  
__Of course the barrel fell like lead.  
__And clinging tightly to the rope  
__I started up instead  
__I shot up like a rocket  
__And to my dismay I found  
__That halfway up,  
__I met the bloody barrel comin' down._

_Well, the barrel broke my shoulder,  
__As towards the ground it sped,  
__And when I reached the top  
__I banged the pulley with my head  
__I clung on tight, now numb with shock,  
__From that almighty blow  
__And the barrel spilled out half it's bricks  
__Some thirteen floors below._

_Now, when the bricks had fallen,  
__From the barrel to the floor,  
__I then outweighed the barrel  
__So I started down once more.  
__Still clinging tightly to the rope,  
__I raced towards the ground  
__And I landed on the broken bricks,  
__Laying scattered all around._

_Now as I lay there moaning,  
__I thought I'd passed the worst.  
__But when the barrel hit the top,  
__Was then the bottom burst.  
__A shower of bricks rained down on me  
__I didn't have a hope,  
__And in the great confusion,  
__I let go the bloody rope._

_Well, the barrel now was heavier,  
__So it started down once more,  
__And it landed right on top of me  
__As I lay there on the floor._

_It broke three ribs, and my left arm  
__And I can only say,  
__That I hope you'll understand  
__Why Phantom's not at work today._

* * *

_This short...sorry about that... I did miss an update though (I'm sorry abou that as well) so I'll try to get another chapter up before the end of the schoolweek if I can._

_With the song...I'll be honest, I originally just wanted to use it because it was funny, then inspiration hit...and it became more... :)_

_I hope I didn't lose anyone with the logic on how the song progressed into something more than just a humourous tale, but if I did, feel free to ask and I'll be sure to get back to you. :)_

_And just for the record, the original song is called "Dear Boss: Why Paddy's Not at Work Today" if anyone cares to look it up._

_I think that's all I've got right now...so... Comments and feedback are as welcome as always! :D_

* * *

_Invisible One_


	5. Chapter 5

Sam was curled up in my arms once more when I awoke the next morning though I couldn't remember for the life of me when she'd gotten there last night. I probably crashed right before she came into my room. As if on cue, Sam woke up beside me only seconds later, something she'd gotten rather good at in the past few months with me. I looked into those brilliant amethyst eyes I never could quite ignore and I was met with the horrid thought train of what I was going to do if I lost her. There was no way in hell I was going to let the damn Games take her from me or take me from her. Pigs will fly and Hell will freeze over before I let that happen.

Last time around, they got a hybrid whose only goal was to survive; this time around they get the pleasure of dealing with a seriously pissed off Danny Phantom.

Training was scheduled to start that day. After breakfast, we were expected to go to the training room and meet the other tributes for the first time. It was only then that I realized I hadn't really paid attention to the reruns of the Reaping up until the drawing for the last three districts.

The training room was almost exactly as I remembered it other than the distinct addition of my very own ghost shield. If only they realized how useless that would be if I truly tried to escape; they don't seem to remember I've been getting around these things for years now.

We were all lined up in the usual manner as the supervisors ran through the same speech I was forced to sit through last year. Each of the three couples was holding hands, all of us too far gone to give a damn what Capitol would think of it. I didn't even pretend to hold back as we were released to go do our own things.

I'm pretty damn sure I froze each one of the trainers at least once as a thank-you for their services. It was amusing to watch the others freak out the first few times I did it as they tried to figure out how to get rid of my ghostly ice.

With Sam there to keep me on my toes, the training sessions actually did some good seeing as she knew my strengths and weaknesses better than myself sometimes. Several times, the trainers around us would freak out when Sam pulled a gun on me, but they must have realized it was harmless because after a while they didn't do anything to stop us.

Then again, a little overshadowing on my part may have helped with that.

When I began to really tire after dodging knives from Fish and shots from Sam, I started to watch the others once more to figure out who was going to serve as the biggest pain in the ass and my biggest asset. Even as I looked around at the tributes for the first time, only two new Districts caught my attention

District One had provided the normal of two cocky as hell, pains in the ass, tributes who weren't really useful for as much as they seemed to think they were. Honestly, the only difference was that the male tribute had a halfway normal name for once. One's tributes were John and Heda. John acted like one of those people that was too smart for their own good. I think he actually managed to make a weak, but technically correct, geometrical argument that all numbers were less than or equal to three. Heda didn't hold the same mathematical prowess as John did, but it was clear from the start that if there was something to know about a plant, she knew it. There were sometimes to plants that were nearly identical except for the fact that one would kill you in seconds and the other could mend any illness. The similarities were so minute, I wouldn't have even thought about risking it, but she could determine which was which every time.

Then, there was District Five with the blond guy named Fritz and the brown headed girl named Cassandra. The girl didn't really catch my eye, the only reason I noticed her at all was because she kept close to the other tribute from her district for the first day of training. Fritz, though managed to get my attention for the same reasons John had. After hearing the two of them debate back and forth a few times from across the training compound, it was clear he held the same mental strength the District One boy did. However, he seemed too well trained in the martial arts to be just some random brainiac they'd drawn. Then there was the look he kept giving me when he thought I wasn't paying attention, almost as if he was cataloguing my every strength and weakness. I don't mean that in the same way all the other Tributes kept their eyes on me, it was almost as if he was keeping record of this for his own reasons.

In the last week of training, I noticed he'd become very close to John. If I didn't know any better, I'd say they knew each other to some degree before they were selected for the Games, and now, even though they were from different Districts and it seemed as if neither one of them were very capable of socializing, they were inseparable. It was probably just the start of n alliance, but something in the back of my mind kept bugging me that there was more to it than that, almost as if they were only aligned because of me.

Then one day, Fish walked over with that eye patch of hers that held my insignia and I could faintly hear the two boys ask one question upon her approach.

"Do you know why Phantom's not at work today?"

Fish's response was even quieter than the question itself, so mush so that I couldn't quite make out her words, even with my enhanced hearing. All I got was the nod I saw from the two boys and a load of confusion surrounding the question itself. Do you know why Phantom's not at work today? That make any sense, and surely they hadn't been referring to me. Perhaps I'd heard them wrong.

When I asked Fish, all I got was a smirk that rarely meant anything other than trouble. Ben wasn't in on it as he was just as confused as Sam and I were, so what the hell was Fish up to? Fritz and Jon wouldn't answer me either, although after that encounter with Fish, they started to drift towards my little group of Sam, Fish, Simon, Ben, and Asa. Occasionally, they'd participate in a conversation or a competition to see who could take the nearest trainer out the fastest in a wrestling match. I always won those even without the use of my powers; but no matter how hard she tried, Sam could never beat the two strange boys even though she'd probably had a lot more on the field practice than the two of them combined. That only begged the question of who the hell these guys were and why was Fish so willing to trust them.

* * *

The Commander was right, these guys were good. All of them could fight when they had to and at the level they were expected to perform at; only the ghost boy exceeded expectations. Even with our genetic enhancements, we couldn't over take the abilities of Danny Phantom. The others were easy, only the Goth girl ever came anywhere near besting us. We wouldn't need to train them much to get them where they needed to be in order to survive the coming months, maybe years, and once they hit their full potential nothing would be able to stop us. Not even Plasmius.

That idiot has been seen around the build site multiple times, trying to get all buddy-buddy with the people in control. He seems to think he's getting exactly where he wants to be and to most, it would seem like he's working his way into power. The thing is, most don't know of our plan to bring the Phantom in.

What? You didn't really think two brainiacs with exceptional martial arts skills were picked by coincidence, did you?

* * *

_I WILL GET BACK ON SCHEDULE. I WILL GET BACK ON SCHEDULE. I WILL GET BACK ON SCHEDULE._

_Seriously...I know I've been bad about keeping things on schedule the past two weeks, but it is being fixed... The only good thing about EOC weeks? Lots and lots of free time to do whatever we want meaning I can write and catch up. :D_

_Comments and feedback are as welcome as always! :D_

* * *

_Invisible One_


	6. Chapter 6

Leave it up to the Resistance to bring me more questions than answers. Honestly, those two nerds didn't give me much to go off. All I heard was something about some guy named Plasmius and that the build was going as expected. District 13 would be up and running by the end of the Games so long as nothing happened to slow it down. It's rather pathetic just how stupid the Capitol can be at times; how could they honestly think they'd end up with just the right amount of volunteers to build, no questions asked? It wouldn't surprise me if someone literally spelled out that there was a resistance stirring (and building headquarters in their new District!) and they still missed the obvious.

Something just wasn't sitting right with the info they gave me. I knew there was something planned to get as many people as possible out of the arena, but they refused to give up "classified information" on what that plan was. In my experience, that generally means they don't have a damn clue as to what the hell they're planning. It's almost as if their rescue attempt is going to be based on something in the Games that may not even happen. I know I'm not very high up in their chain of command, but they ought to at least tell me if we're on our own getting out.

* * *

I looked around, searching for some way of getting at the Game officials while also taking in the skill level of those around me. I was supposed to shake things up a bit, get the focus off Danny and somewhere else - myself if I had to.

Most of the tributes were absolutely pathetic as they fought to get their minds wrapped around the workings of the various weapons lying around; only Danny and Sam seemed to have half a clue as to what the hell they were doing. Fish was okay once she got ahold of a few knives, but past that she wasn't much better. Every last one of them was thinking too much, you could see it in the slight hesitation each one had right before they moved. While he was better than most, even Danny hadn't learned to fully trust his instincts, he'd pause and overthink things when a move looked too simple to have just one motive. Hesitation could kill in a fight to the death.

Honestly, I thought John needed a lot of work with his combat before being sent on this mission, but he was a master compared to these guys. He probably thought our main concerns were pretty high up there when it came to their skill, but they all needed more help than we really had time to give.

I'd been training constantly for the past decade after my inherent instinct for the martial arts was discovered. Their weaknesses were blindingly obvious to my cold, calculating eyes. Danny wasn't confident in his own prowess and he always slipped up as soon as he stopped letting his instinct drive him. Sam was a little too hard-headed; you could tell just by looking at her she wasn't one to show any form of weakness. She underestimated what a feigned moment of weakness could do to turn the tides of a fight. Fish could aim a knife at nearly any target, but if you moved her away from those knives or tried to engage in a one on one fight with her, she was completely lost as to what to do.

Ben was simply inexperienced but he often thought he was better than he really was, his attitude turning cocky before he really had any idea where the fight as a whole was going. It was his cocky thinking that often caused him to lose. Asa...well, she was determined, I had to give her that. It was obvious from the start that she'd never held a real weapon before, but she refused to give up when a fight went wrong. Every once in a while, I could see moments where she stopped thinking and just went with it and that was when she'd start to get the upper hand. She seemed to know where she screwed up, and while it may have taken her a while to fix it, her stubbornness actually allowed her to reach a level close to Ben's within the first two weeks of training.

Then, there was Simon.

He tried; I guess I had to allow him that much credit, but honestly he was pretty much hopeless. I've always said anyone could learn to fight, but this guy was really challenging that thinking. Even when I tried to personally help him, he still couldn't get the workings of a simple punch down. He'd really just be better off as a sacrifice for the cause, as much as I hate to say it.

I laughed to myself quietly when I realized I was doing the same thing I was accusing everyone else of - I was overthinking everything going on here.

John turned to face me at the sound of my small laugh, and I noticed an evil little smirk on his face.

Shit. He remembered.

He didn't say anything at first. He just reached into one of the seemingly endless pockets in his pants (I'm still trying to figure out how the hell the guy had managed to add pockets to his pants, they weren't there when we got them) and pulled out your normal, plain Jane, number two, orange pencil.

It was an old joke between us and our friends in the resistance. One year, one of our few friends kept bugging me about my favorite color and when I wouldn't answer, she proceeded to give me a plain old pencil for my birthday. I then made the mistake of telling her it was "a bad ass pencil." I was practically attacked with dozens of the exact same pencil when I walked into training the next day.

That was three years ago, and John has been taunting me with it every year since. I don't know why, but I was kind of hoping he'd forget because of our involvement with this year's Hunger Games, but I really should have known he wouldn't. Honestly, he just couldn't seem to pass up a chance to be a royal pain in the ass, no matter what the circumstances were.

I took the pencil out of his hand and proceeded to throw it at the target Fish had set up to practice. It landed roughly five inches to the right of her perfectly centered knife. I needed to work on my aim, it was more than a little rusty from the extra hours I've been putting into my martial arts instead of more long ranged weapons.

"A little rusty there, Fritz?" Jon was smirking at me again; he apparently wasn't quite done being a pain in the ass yet.

"At least I can hit the target." Everyone knew Jon wasn't good with throwing things. Bows and guns he could aim just fine, but throwing weapons just weren't his thing. Then again, Jon isn't really here for his combat expertise, that's me. He's here for the shit load of knowledge he has shoved in his head. God only knows how much pointless crap he knows purely so he can piss people off when it comes to a battle of wits.

"I can hit a target too, see." And with that, he ran up to the target twenty feet away and punched it. Like I said, he's hell bent on being a total smartass.

"Have you ever stopped to think that maybe this is the reason we don't have many friends?"

He shrugged in response, fighting and failing to keep that evil little smirk off his face. "I've always just blamed you for it." For some reason, I had a feeling he was only half joking. While neither one of us was very good with the whole socializing thing, I was a little better at it than Jon and I wouldn't put it past him to blame me for our lack of friends because of that. He knew it wasn't solely my fault, but he could sure as hell blame me for it just to get on my nerves.

I was about to send some remark back in his direction, but I noticed Danny floating towards us, taking full advantage of his ghost powers now that the world knew about them.

He was a little weary of us, most likely because we had spent most of the past two weeks sitting on the sidelines, watching. The ghost boy finally spoke. "Do you intend on just standing there the whole time?"

"Surely you know the power just watching your enemies can give you." The remark came without thought in the same almost riddle-like form that Jon often spoke in. I think I've been hanging around him too much.

"The question is who you consider your enemy." Something flickered in his neon green eyes for a moment that looked a lot like suspicion. Who could blame him though? You couldn't get through life, especially his life, if you trusted everyone in sight.

"Your enemy is mine."

"But that doesn't mean I'm not your enemy as well."

"True." That's all I said, I didn't really care whether or not he recognized us as allies yet, that could easily be fixed once the Games began.

He sighed before making his next statement. "Do you want to come practice with us?" He vaguely indicated the rest of his little group.

Jon decided to finally have some input. "You were just accusing us of being your enemy, were you not?"

"Yeah, but Fish seems to trust you and she's yet to screw me over." A cocky little smirk formed on his face. "It's not like you could really hurt me anyway." As if the empathize his point, he disappeared from view for a moment before I spun around and grabbed the hand that was about to poke me from behind.

"Maybe I can't hurt you, but you'd be hard pressed to land a blow on me either," I said as he faded back into view. It had been almost too easy to catch him. I probably could hurt him if I wanted to, but we needed him alive and so I would keep myself under control unless he really deserved something.

* * *

_Meet the new characters! :D_

_I dunno...I'm still a little brain dead from EOCs..._

_Plan: Use the time after finishing my EOCs to catch up on my writing._

_Reality: I forgot that they made the regulations as far as what we can do once we're done with the test completely ridiculous and fell even more behind. We literally can only sleep, read, or daydream until the whole SCHOOL is done. O_O_

_Alright...rant over..._

_Comments and feedback are as welcome as always. :D_

* * *

_Invisible One_


	7. Chapter 7

The officials and trainers weren't too happy when I tried to train with someone who could really challenge me in close combat. They were extremely against the idea of me sparring with Fritz and no amount of overshadowing swayed their decision. In the end, I gave up on the idea of fighting thim and Jon in the training area and we settled on meeting later tonight in the District 12 penthouse. I figured that if Fish could get up there, I could probably pull off getting Fritz and Jon up there as well.

To my surprise, I managed to beat Jon after going at it for a good twenty minutes, but Fritz got the upper hand against me within the first five minutes in all three of our rounds. Even after resting while he fought Sam and Jon (at the same time!), I still couldn't get the upper hand against him. Sam timed it, the longest I lasted was six and a half minutes before Fritz managed to throw me on the ground, with or without the use of my ghostly speed and strength. He was just that damn good.

"How the hell did you get so good at this?" I was still getting up after being thrown to the ground for the third time when I asked.

"I've had ten years of practice. That, and you keep making the same mistakes you did while we were in the training facility earlier." I quirked an eyebrow and he continued. "It's simple, really. When someone uses a row of complex moves then follows up with and exceedingly simple one, you stop listening to your instincts. You push your instincts aside, overthink, and hesitate, making it easy for someone like me to grab the upper hand and kick your ass." Most people would have smirked at the end of that sentence, or made some reference to a joking manner, be he just shrugged it off as the fact it was in his mind.

"I don't hesitate." At least, I didn't think I did. I never had really bothered to notice.

"Sure you don't." Sarcasm practically dripped from his words. "Try again, but don't lose sight of what your instincts are telling you to do. If something tells you that you really ought to move before you get kicked in the gut, move before you get kicked in the gut." He assumed his usual stance before taking the first punch, aiming for my left shoulder. I dodged and barely missed the second punch headed for my chest before finally getting in a blow for myself.

And so it continued, a dance of dodging and striking, kicking and jumping, and just surviving. I could tell I was losing this fight to, but I fought to keep my instincts at the forefront of my mind, ignoring the rational part of me that wanted to think every move out before making it.

I finally slipped up, and I actually felt it happen before he grabbed my wrist, twisted my arm and kicked the back of my knees, landing me on the ground once more. Sam called out the time from the timer Jon had mysteriously produced earlier. Eight minutes, my best time yet.

"Better, but you still fell for the same trick in the end. I reached out and instead of moving to the left like you should have, you froze, trying to figure out what I was planning." I knew he was right as the last seconds of our latest round replayed in my mind.

"You know, most tributes wouldn't be trying to help me out." I smirked, trying to add a playful air to my comment though I really was trying to figure out why he was so intent on helping me.

"I'm not most tributes, Danny. Jon and I share the same job: keeping you alive, and if I've gotta kick your ass a few times to do it, then I will." He paused for a moment while I caught my breath. He jumped right back in once I stood up straight. "Ready for another round?" Fritz was almost lazy in his demeanor, as if he knew all the cards to our sparring matches laid perfectly in his hands. As right as he may have been, it still pissed me off just a little.

"I'm ready if you are." Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jon pull a notebook and pen put of seemingly nowhere; I've got to figure out where the hell he keeps all this random shit.

We went on for several more rounds though I had to occasionally stop to rest while Fritz went up against Jon and Sam on his own. My times got better and better, going eight, ten, eleven, and eventually fifteen. After I stepped out for the third time, it suddenly hit me that Fritz hadn't stopped to rest since we got here hours ago, the only times he'd ever stopped fighting was while we were either talking or I was switching out with Jon and Sam.

I spoke up before the next fight began. "How the hell are you still standing after all of this?" I noticed he'd hardly broken a sweat. The question seemed to worry him some before he regained his normal inexpressive expression.

"We all have secrets, Danny." He stopped until I gave him a "do you really think you can pull off that kind of bullshit with me?" look and he continued and switch tactics. "You couldn't tell the world about your powers until the absolute last minute, and I can't tell you how I'm hardly tired at all until the last minute. I need you to trust me on this one."

His voice was deathly serious, so I trusted my instinct and let it drop with little more than a nod, but that didn't stop my question when I noticed Jon's notebook had disappeared again. "Where the hell does Jon keep all this crap?" Besides the timer and his notebook, Jon had also pulled water bottles and protein bars out what seemed to be thin air.

Fritz just laughed. "We're still trying to figure that out. Trust me, you haven't seen anything yet. He once pulled out a playing card, several plastic knives, and another kid's report card while searching for a pencil."

"Pockets are a wonderful thing to have." Jon smirked from the corner of the room as he spoke for the first time since we got here.

"Even so, most people can't cram that much crap into their pockets!" Fritz retorted, smirking at his friend.

"As you've said yourself, I am not most people," Jon replied without even a second's hesitation.

"One of these days, you're going to find that you can't cram anything else into your pockets."

Jon just shrugged, the smirk I was coming to think was his trademark was plastered firmly on his face. "You underestimate my abilities." Fritz just shook his head and it finally hit me that they probably went through this routine on a regular basis.

The martial artist finally turned his attention back to me. "You ready to go again, or are you going to turn in for the night?"

I stepped back into our makeshift arena. "One more round, then we ought to call it a night. I can't show up for training too horridly battered tomorrow." He laughed before we started again. I lasted twenty minutes before I finally gave out and exhaustion finally forced me to slip up.

* * *

_YAY! A CHAPTER THAT IS TECHNICALLY ON TIME! :D_

_Now...before my cousin kills me..._

_My cousin, Fish, has created a Glog for this series out of boredom and because she felt like drawing pictures of the chacters. This link to this is going on my profile if you care to look at it and go see her computer drawing and the random character info that's going on it. There isn't much there now, but more and more is going to be added over time. :)_

_Comments and feedback are as welcome as always! :D_

* * *

_Invisible One_


	8. Chapter 8

The last day of training had finally arrived, but I knew that unlike most people, I wasn't going to be getting off the hook anytime soon. Ever since the first time I brought Fritz and Jon up here to train some, they've both been relentless in training not only me and Sam, but also Ben, Asa, Fish and Simon. We had all improved greatly with the exception of Simon. I thought Tucker was hopeless until I saw a professional try to train Simon, I felt bad for the guy. It didn't seem to matter what method of teaching anyone tried, he just couldn't get any of it for more than a few minutes at a time. He watched hundreds of matches, I tried some suggestive overshadowing to help him, hell, Jon even drew up diagrams of the proper movements, but Simon was hopeless. The only time he did well was when we had him dodging oncoming attacks; Fish commented that he might as well start waving his white flag now the way Italy would.

I didn't understand the reference, but apparently Jon did as he actually laughed for the first time before a look of sadness came over his face for just a second as I saw his mental and emotional defenses fall and force him to drop the mask of composure he always wore. Fritz came over to him and after a silent conversation, Jon's carefully constructed mask of composure was back up and running as he resume his normal unreadable expression. When Fish asked what was wrong, the only response he gave was to pull out a DVD case from somewhere within the depths of his pockets and throw it towards us.

Inside was an old DVD and a picture of a girl that looked to be only a year younger than Jon. She had long, brown hair and behind her smile was a look of determination that could only come from years of fighting for a cause. The disk was worn and I couldn't make out the title but it worked perfectly fine when I popped into the DVD player in the living room.

It was a disk of several episodes from an old show from back before the Capitol. I vaguely recognized some of the character names, like a America and Canada, and it took me a minute to remember what it was from my class on ancient history in school. The characters were personifications of the old countries of the world before various branches of the Capitol took control of them.

Eventually, we came across the Italy character Fish had referenced earlier and sure enough we saw his white flag and found that, just like Simon, he was good at little more than running and dodging. I caught sight of Jon standing in the back with a sad smile on his face as he watched right along with us.

The disk ended and Fish went up to Jon. "What happened to Anne?"

His face fell. "She got caught in the crossfire of some Peacekeepers. The first shot wouldn't have killed her, but even though she had nothing to do with the fight that broke out, they just kept shooting. They flat out murdered her just for the hell of it because they could get away with it." He was silent for a moment and I saw him battling to keep his emotions at least partially in check. "They didn't even have any reason to believe she as involved in anything to do with the resistance, I made damn sure of that. Anything they would have found would have lead back to me, but when they realized she was dead, they just swore she was rebelling."

It wasn't until Fritz walked over to him that I realized he told us two different stories. "Jon, remember what reality this is." Jon nodded in acknowledgment to the puzzling statement. This reality? What the hell did that mean? Did it have something to do with the conflicting stories?

* * *

The worlds are always clashing with one another, each on their own path. As time goes on, the differences become greater and greater and it becomes harder and harder to keep track of what event goes with what version of reality. In some, I have Fritz there to remind me what world I'm in. In others, I'm all on my own and in a few, I've died. I can't root myself to just one world, I flit through hundreds of them in well under the blink of an eye, moving fast enough that almost all the others can't notice I've disappeared for the smallest fraction of a second, only to reappear for an even shorter time span before I'm gone once more.

It's nothing short of a pain in the ass, sitting back, watching hundreds of worlds unfold before my very eyes. I've watched the Capitol fall, I've watched it rise; there's even one world where the Capitol doesn't exist to begin with, not yet anyway.

Those who don't know me, wonder why I hardly ever speak. It's not because I don't care to, it's just because I'm currently occupied with trying to finish a conversation within another version of reality. To me, it seems as though I never stop talking, but those around me hardly ever hear me.

The worst part? In every world, she's been ripped from me in some way or another. Anne is dead in every world I can see; the only person I've ever really trusted because she flitted through the worlds just like I did up until the point where she died in the last place I could see her. I trust Fritz with most things, but it's hard to trust him with everything when he will never really understand what I see every day of my life in every world.

I don't why I'm letting the Resistance try this, why I'm letting them try to use Danny in order to overthrow the Capitol. I've seen it done several times, and each attempt has ended in nothing short of failure. Sometimes, only he dies, in others every life outside the Capitol itself has been wiped off the face of the planet. So why do I let them try?

* * *

_Yup...it's a late update. *Insert various excuses of life sucking here*_

_Anyway, sorry about that..._

_Comments and feedback are welscome as always! :)_

* * *

_Invisible One_


	9. Chapter 9

"Do you notice anything weird about Jon?" There was something off about him, but I was having a hard time putting my finger on it; I was hoping Ben might have a clue what was different about him.

"He hardly ever talks and has seems to have more room in his pockets than I have in my house, but other than that, nothing. Why, did you notice something?" Typical Ben, he would miss something like this. Even if I couldn't tell what it was, I could still tell he was different. Both Jon and Fritz had something about them that didn't match the confines of what should be considered normal, but it was way more obvious with Jon.

"I know you don't believe in this stuff, but it almost feels as if Jon's energy is flickering. It's almost like a strobe light that's blinking at an impossibly fast rate." When I closed my eyes, I could very nearly see it happening, him blinking in and out of existence.

"I think your witchcraft is making you see things." He never did drop the whole "witchcraft" thing, no matter how many times I told him to.

The one thing he never has believed me on is the energy I can sometimes see pulsing around people. It's always the special ones too. Danny's energy changed with his form; as human, his aura seemed to have a blue quality, and as a ghost it was more of a green. I'm not saying it was actually blue or green, but it just felt like it was. Like if you had to assign a color to a tone of voice. You might say anger was red, while happiness was yellow. Fritz was usually surrounded by pure white until he started fighting, then it turned to black.

Jon was throwing me for a loop though. Most of the time, his aura was a bright red, but if I looked closely for long enough, occasionally I'd see it turn pink for the smallest fraction of a second before the red returned. When I first sensed it, I thought my mind was just playing tricks on me. Then, it happened again and again and I'd see it flickering more and more often. It took me about an hour of watching him to realize the flashes of pink I kept seeing were really happening faster than my mind could catch. It was amazing I'd caught onto it at all. That only begged the question of why it was flashing like that.

When the energy around Danny or Fritz changes, it mimics a change in their state of body or mind whether it be because they are changing forms or because they are getting ready to fight. So what was Jon changing? There was nothing I could see physically and his demeanor never changed, but something had to be shifting, there's just no other reason for his energy to be changing like that.

It puzzled me to no end until I heard the "remember what reality we're in" comment. Then it just puzzled me more. There was something so blindingly obvious I had to be missing, I just couldn't figure out what the hell it was until we got back on our own floor and it hit me like a ton of bricks.

"He's a Jumper." I'd heard stories about them, but I never thought there was any reality behind them.

"What was that?" I'd nearly forgotten Ben was with me and he managed to startle me as I was shaken out of my thoughts.

"Jon, he's a Jumper." He gave me a look that could only mean "are you out of your mind?"

"Asa, we both know those are just stories."

"Do you trust me?" I really did hate having to resort to that argument, but there was no other way I was going to be able to win him over.

"You know I do."

"Then trust me on this. Those stories about the Jumpers are real. I didn't realize it until now, but that's why his energy keeps flickering. He isn't rooted to this reality; he keeps jumping from one world to another." Ben only nodded then disappeared into his own train of thought. It was probably a good thing too because I couldn't help but wonder how the hell Jon got the power and curse of jumping between the worlds. How he could keep himself sane while living hundreds of lives simultaneously was beyond me; the pure mental capacity needed to accomplish that was nothing short of unbelievable.

* * *

All tributes were granted the day off from anything relating to the Games the day before the annual parade, and, just like normal, my not-so-small group was meeting in the District 12 penthouse. Our training was going normally until I accidentally overshadowed Jon.

Fritz had thrown a punch and I turned intangible just a hair too late to keep it from making contact. The result? My now nearly weightless body flew from the momentum and landed in Jon's body. The odd thing was, I wasn't in control like I should have been and in the few seconds I was trapped within him, saw several images that had nothing to do with what was going on in the penthouse of District 12.

I was suddenly pushed out only seconds after landing in him. He gave me a death glare that made even San cringe just a bit before speaking. "Don't ever do that again. You're damn lucky I managed to push you back into your own world."

"What the hell was that?" If Jon had any explaining to do before, he sure had one whole hell of a lot of it to do now.

He sighed, apparently deciding it just wasn't worth it to try lying his ass off about this. "What you just saw were glimpses of other realities. I don't know how many your mind managed to process, but you saw over a hundred over the course of a little less than a second." Over a hundred? I only remembered actually catching sight of five or so. I must have been moving so fast that by the time my mind fully painted a picture of what my eyes were seeing, I'd already missed the view of several other realities.

"Are you going to tell them everything?" Fritz had appeared beside Jon.

"Might as well. Honestly, if the other realities are anything to go by, Asa already has it figured out anyway. There's not much point in keeping it a secret." I glanced over at the girl in question long enough to see a satisfied smirk cross her face before smacking Ben upside the head and muttering "I told you so." Jon turned to her. "By the way, have you figured out you can use the energy around yourself to detect incoming attacks? I can guarantee you'll last longer in our practice fights."

"Weren't you in the middle of explaining something?" I was intrigued by his comment towards Asa, but what ever the hell he was referring to with her could be addressed later, after he told me why the hell I'd seen a hundred other realities when I unintentionally overshadowed him.

"There's a hundred different names for me, but in this world I'm usually referred to as a Jumper. I jump between different worlds and realities, living an impossible number of lives simultaneously. I have almost no control over it; this is the only reality I can keep myself in and even that is only for two or three full seconds at a time." I finally noticed how slowly he spoke, as if he had to think through each individual sound as he said it. He probably really did have to think it through, it had to be damn near impossible to carry on a coherent conversation when you're never in the same world long enough to get a full word out before jumping to another version of reality.

"How can you even keep up a conversation much less try to live a hundred different lives?"

He gave a half hearted laugh in response to my question. "I've been jumping since I was two, my mind has learned to sort through the information thrown at it. I'm sure that if you overshadowed me for long enough, you'd learn to sort through the images as well out of necessity. As far as keeping up with conversations, it took me about five years to get the hang of that and even now I can't keep up more than two or three at a time."

Fish cut in. "So basically, if he gets distracted and says his mind was in another world, he probably means that to be literal." Leave it to Fish to take something this complicated and shove it into one smart remark.

"Yeah, pretty much." Fritz smirked as he responded to Fish's remark.

"You've gone through this before, haven't you?" Simon spoke up for the first time with his observation.

"This would be about the tenth time I've made this speech to this particular group of people. And before you ask Ben, no, I do not see the future. There are other realities that are farther along in their time stream than this one, and while something will break this world off from those at some point or another, up until at least this point the time has passed in exactly the same manner." My head was starting to hurt just hearing about this, I'd be insane if I actually had to live through it.

"You know how this is going to end then if you've seen other worlds go through the same time stream." Simon was right, if Jon has lived through other versions of the same time stream, then he must know how this all ends.

"I only know so much. People behave in similar manners between various versions of themselves, but each time I've seen this set of events move along, there have been different people running the show behind the stage. Honestly, I have no clue what will happen after the Games. This is the first time I've seen more than one halfa in existence on our side." Our side? There was no way in hell Vlad was on the same side as me. Even when he was forced to play on the same team, he still made my life hell.

"I don't know what he's told you, but Vlad Masters is not on your side. I don't even have to know what side we're supposedly on to tell you that."

Jon and Fritz both just chuckled at Sam's remark before the former responded. "Vald Masters isn't the only other halfa in existence. You seem to forget about Dani every time."

My next question was met with several "are you kidding me?" stares before it got an answer. "What side are we supposedly on anyway?"

"He really is clueless, isn't he?" Fritz remarked.

"Even after sixteen years of life and two years of ghost hunting, a box of rocks would still have more of a clue than him." Sam was smirking at me as she said that.

"We're talking about the Resistance in District 13, dumbass." Fish smacked me upside the head as if to empathize her point as she spoke.

* * *

_Before I say anything else, I'm going to sort this line out because even I got a little confused writing it. It took me a few minutes to realize my mind was processing it backwards..._

**_Most of the time, his aura was a bright red, but if I looked closely for long enough, occasionally I'd see it turn pink for the smallest fraction of a second before the red returned._**

_Jon's aura is red while he's in other worlds and only turns pink when he's actually within the same version of reality as my characters. Because he spends more time out of thier reality than actually in it, his aura would appear to be red the majority of the time._

_Wow...I'm really screwing with the universes of both DP and The Hunger Games... I know some of this might get confusing, so please don't hesitate to ask questions if I manage to lose you on anything. :)_

_Comments and feedback are as welcome as always! :D_

* * *

_Invisible One_


	10. NOTICE

_My computer has gotten hit with a virus. As of right now, it's completely shot and will be that way for a few days until my dad can stop playing with his new tablet and fix it. It is likely that there will not be any chapters posted until Friday, Thursday if we're all lucky._

_If I thought I could edit myself as well as I need to from my Kindle, I would get some stuff written up and post it, but I'm bad at editing with spellcheck and to try going without it would fail..miserably._

_Hope to see you all soon...as soon as my dad fixes my computer anyway._

_Invisible One_

_P.S._

_I have finally figured out what happens when I try to be a responsible student and NOT procrastinate on a project... :P_


	11. Chapter 11

_I HAVE RETURNED!_

* * *

There was a resistance in District 13? How was that even possible? It didn't even fully exist yet, the few rumors I'd heard were all about the construction of the Capitol's new district. I heard that it was progressing at a slower rate than expected, but that was about it. It finally hit me that it was fully possible that things were moving so much slower than expected because a resistance was building up more than the Capitol realized.

I shook myself out of my thoughts to focus on the new sparring match Fish had just entered. She was losing badly, but that wasn't much of a disappointment considering who she was up against. I honestly doubted all of us together could get the better of Fritz, much less just one on their own. I watched the two fight for a few minutes as Fish beat her record time before I saw it, at least I'm pretty sure I did.

Fritz went in for an uppercut that should have hit her jaw, but Fish pulled the same stunt I did a few times when bullies tried ganging up on me. Fish's chin flat out disappeared for a second. It was clear neither one of the fighters noticed it and as far as I could tell, Fish hadn't done it on purpose.

I caught sight of a slightly confused look on Asa's face from across the "arena" as Fish pulled her little stunt. Ben must have seen it too as he asked her what was wrong and I heard her reply.

"Fish flickered." I didn't have a clue what she was talking about, but it was clear Ben did.

"I thought you said you couldn't see anything around her."

"I usually can't, but her aura showed itself to me for the smallest fraction of a second when she dodged that punch." I didn't have time to question Asa's words before Fish found herself on the ground, finally losing to the master of masters.

Fritz helped the tired Fish up and back on her feet before Fritz called out to Jon. "Is there something special about Fish you forgot to mention again?" His tone sounded slightly peeved, but you could tell most of his question was in a teasing manner.

"Not as far as I'm aware." Jon went silent for a second before returning to the conversation. "Nope, there isn't anything I've forgotten in this world or the others."

"Then why, pray tell, did she manage to dodge several punches that should have been a sure shot?" Apparently, I wasn't the only one who noticed her little stunts though I must not have caught on to them all.

Fish cut in. "What are you two blabbering on about?"

"This." I saw Fritz tense ever so slightly as he spoke before suddenly turning and throwing a punch at Fish's shoulder. The girl barely had time to react and even though she was already moving away when his fist passed her shoulder, I knew there was no way she could have moved fast enough to dodge that punch. It wasn't until I saw a small piece of her shoulder reappear that a possibility finally hit me. But there was no way, right?

"Take your eye patch off, Fish." Fish looked confused, but obliged. When I saw what used to be the brown eye she'd lost in the Ghost Zone, I could hardly believe it was even possible. In place of her human eye, a new one was forming and while it didn't have a pupil yet, I could see a glowing, silver iris forming.

"Fish, did the Box Ghost hit you with a box he just had laying around or did he form it on the spot?" There was no possible way the Box Ghost had managed this, but the evidence I could see was disproving that.

"He formed it on the spot, why?" Wow...the things that idiot was capable of.

"What's going on Danny?" Sam spoke up from the sidelines. Apparently even she couldn't figure out where my train of thought was going.

"The box that took her eye was made from ectoplasm and she keeps doing that same thing I used to avoid a punch from a bully." Sam's eye's widened in understanding.

"You don't really think…?" She trailed off, but I understood what she meant, she'd finally figured out what I had.

"Okay, I know we usually get on to you about being clueless, but I haven't got a clue what the hell you're going on about, so would you care to explain Danny?"

I couldn't help the slight chuckle that came before I answered Fish. "When old Boxy managed to take your eye out, he formed a box from ectoplasm and I think it left some residual plasma where your eye used to be. It looks like ectoplasm integrated itself into your blood system and has begun to reach into the rest of your body as well as it started to replicate." Good god, that sounded like the kind of explanation my mother would give. I knew way too much about the properties of ectoplasm, but most of it was out of necessity.

"In other words, you're slowly becoming half ghost and, among other things, a new eye is forming as a result of the transformation." Sam managed to simplify my explanation as Jon approached and seemed to study Fish's new silver colored eye for a few seconds before he disappeared all together.

"Where the hell did Jon go?" Fish exclaimed in surprised as Fritz just smirked.

"He'll be back in a minute. He forced himself to stay rooted to this reality for a few seconds to get a good look at your eye and now he's being physically thrown through the other realities to make up for the lost time. Even I don't fully get how it works, but apparently when he normally moves between worlds, it's just his conscious that gets thrown around, but when he forces himself to stay rooted in one world for a few seconds at a time, his physical body is transported as well." Well...that made almost no sense.

Jon reappeared just as Fritz finished his explanation. "You seem to piece together more and more every time I do that." Jon smirked in the direction of Fritz as he continued. "I highly doubt anyone will ever fully understand the concept, but Fritz can explain it better than anyone else. Don't bother trying to ask, you will only get more confused and I somehow doubt we have time to try any clear anything up. I think it's more important that we look at the unique circumstances we have working for us." I wasn't going to question Jon's judgment, I had already had one headache from trying to piece together something about his abilities, I didn't really care for another one.

Jon faced no objection to his proposition, so he just continued to speak, carrying on the longest dialogue I'd ever heard him speak. "I live in hundreds of realities, but I have never seen this set of circumstances. Never has there been both Danny and Dani on the side of District 13 and never have I seen Fish develop a ghost half. In the few other realities where I've seen her lose that eye, it has always been with a normal object never something made out of ectoplasm. What's happening here is vastly different from the other worlds."

"So in other words, you don't have a clue what the hell is going on with any of this." Ben had spoken up, though I couldn't tell if he was teasing or if he was a little irritated that our best source of information didn't know what was going on.

"As much as I hate to admit it, yes. I don't have a clue what's going to happen. Normally I can make predictions based on what has occurred in other worlds, but this time I cannot." You could tell this was unnerving him slightly, he was obviously used to having at least some idea as to what was going to happen.

* * *

_This is a little later than I had planned on getting it out, but consider it a Christmas present. :)_

_On to my mini-rant about the computer virus..._

_Apperently, life has decided that I will always be a procrastinator. The one time I tried to start a project before the night before it was due, I got a computer virus. -_- What a way to encourage being a responsible student. :P_

_Anyway, comments and feedback are as welcome as always! :D_

* * *

_Invisible One_


	12. Chapter 12

As I watched the others begin to freak out ever so slightly at the loss of the information we'd all begun to rely on already, I found myself overtaken with an eerie sense of calm. It almost scared me as it set into my mind as the calm before the storm. The others were too immersed in their confusion to feel it, but for me, the approaching storm could not be ignored. All hell was about to break loose. I didn't know if it'd be in the next minute or the next year, but it was going to break loose.

The others called me Italy when we watched that old show the other day, and when it comes to fighting, maybe I am. Outside of that though, I feel more like Canada. They don't do it on purpose, but unless I'm in the ring, they all tend to forget I'm even there. Fish remembers me sometimes, but even she forgets about me.

Maybe I just haven't done anything worth remembering. Hopefully, I'll do something great soon, something that no one in the world will forget. Something that will keep my memory alive even after I die. Deep down, I just want the world to remember the name of Simon White; I want them to remember my name.

* * *

The skills performance (that Danny managed to forget about) was scheduled for the next day and I was still at a loss as to what to do. I could try out my martial arts, but once the Game Makers saw what Fritz could do, anything anyone did in that area would look pathetic. He was going to stick out like a sore thumb; our boss really should have put him in District Two, at least then he wouldn't stick out quite as much. It would be easy to claim he was a Peace Keeper in training if he was from District Two, but the only thing he had to relate himself with District Five is metaphorical power.

Why they stuck me in One, I'll never know. It would have been easier for them to place me in a District that wasn't know for their careers, but instead they opted to just kill off this year's volunteers minutes before the Reaping to guarantee my place. I didn't volunteer as Tribute, my name was drawn from the bowl, just as it should have been.

The Capitol is good with their security when it comes to everything except the contents of that bowl - it was almost too easy to empty it and replace the cards with hundreds of ones that all read my name. They killed the volunteers for this year's Games and then sent someone in to swap out the names while the Peace Keepers were distracted.

Idiot officials.

Fritz got to volunteer since he wasn't placed in a District known for it's pre-trained Tributes. At least it didn't look too random, the original Tribute looked young enough that the only way he could even be in the Games was if his Reaping was his birthday present. It would probably help him out if people decided to reward him for his bravery and generosity by sending him more gifts than usual.

I know you're reading this right now, I watched an author from another reality write down this tale from what seemed to be nothing more than her imagination. I tweaked a few details here and there as she wrote. I see that question forming in your mind and I'll answer it with this: you don't really think Fritz and I really came from the first and fifth Districts, do you? Silly reader. No, we really belong in a District that doesn't even technically exist yet: District 13. I'm sure you've heard plenty about it by now, but let me tell you a little more.

District 13, the home of the yet-to-be-known Resistance. The Resistance has existed since the end of the war that brought the Capitol into power, but we've been spread way too thin to do anything. We were split up when the Districts were divided, the only reason the effort didn't die out all together was because of those few brave souls who were willing to risk their lives relaying information between each of our small groups. We lost at least ten runners a year up until Dani found us when construction began. We once lost 23 in one year. We weren't careful and 15 of those ended up in the Games.

Yes, I see that you think this is impossible, but remember you belong to the only reality in which there is no Capitol. Look who's impossible now. Can I continue with my narration? Yes? Thank you. Now where was I?

There were announcements made in the first nine Districts about the construction of 13 just after the Games ended last year. I think the Capitol kept it hidden from 10, 11 and 12 in an attempt to keep any groups of inspired rebels from taking command of the project. They didn't realize that decision was the worst thing they could have done to keep themselves in control of their new District. Instead of cutting out any rebels, they managed to only offer the "honor" of building to the Districts in which our cause resided.

You'd think (and don't even try to deny it) that the winners from last year would have come from the Districts that had the highest concentration of Rebels and thus would have heard something about it at some point whether they realized it or not, but in fact the opposite was true.

Well, it was in that reality anyway.

The tenth, eleventh, and twelfth Districts were formed on land that was the farthest from the original base of the Resistance. Yes, they still had some of the original Rebels within them, but there was far fewer than in the other Districts. Two was the exception to this rule. The reason it has always sided so strongly with the Capitol was because it was the lone District to be completely free of any rebelling forces, at least as far as I'm aware. So no, Danny, Fish, and Ben weren't told to rebel from an early age, they did that of their own choice. Hell, if anything, the Capitol probably had more to do with their choices than we did.

Don't get impatient with me, I'm getting back to the story of the rising thirteenth District.

As I said before, only the first nine districts were informed of the build and the "honor" that came with volunteering. Within a day, a message had been passed around the various fractions of a resistance that was holding on to nothing but hope. Someone from District Six had planned for us to join forces once more by volunteering to work on the site of District 13. Most of the spots were filled by those fighting alongside us.

The few that weren't among our ranks were found dead in the woods within a week.

No one was questioned until the sixth body was found and by then we all knew the answer to give.

"It's not our fault they were stupid enough to go out alone on the Capitol's property." The number of meanings behind that were limitless, but the thing with the idiots running the show is that they tend to believe what they want to unless they have no way of denying the truth. In this case, they were happy to believe we meant it was their own fault that a wild animal had gotten to them, not that they trusted us enough to walk out alone as the perfect target for one of our assassins.

I see that thought from you, reader, and you too, my dear author. I am well aware that there are real idiots in control of the Capitol. I am also aware that one should not underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

Now, most of our forces are joined in one place, on the building site of District Thirteen. To the outside world, it looks as if we are moving slower than we were meant to, but to those of us on the inside, we are right on schedule. We have built so much more than the Capitol could even hope to realize. Everything they see above ground has been mirrored below it with more protection than anything in this world has ever seen.

I sought out Fritz as soon as the Resistance was in one place. I knew he'd be there, he always is. I have found him in every world at some point or another. He serves as a protector, sometimes dying in service. I hate it when I see him die in another world, mainly because another version of him can always tell when it happens. He may not jump between the worlds, but he'd linked to every one of them. It's part of why he is as skilled as he is in his martial arts. Fritz doesn't realize it, but he learns with every other version of himself. If the Fritz in one world learns to mend a weakness of their own, all the others do as well.

He also learns what killed him in the other realities, even if he doesn't know it. Whatever killed him once will not do it again unless it is of natural causes, something that has only happened twice. He was shot in the head once. As soon as that happened, every other living version of him learned to instinctively listen for the whistle of a bullet. He hasn't been shot since, not in this world or any other. No bullet can catch him anymore, his ability to find incoming bullets has been refined well past the capabilities of any normal human being.

Should I tell him? No. I did once and he stopped listening to his instincts - that version of him was dead a day later. That's probably why he's so hell bent on listening to what his gut is telling him now.

Back on track, once the nationwide announcement of this year's Hunger Games was made, plans were made to integrate Fritz and I into two of the Districts so we'd be able to get Danny and the others out of there alive. This was no simple matter, inter-District traveling is illegal. You can't just hop on a train, fill out some paperwork, and be done with it. It took a little more work than that.

I will not risk telling even you how we managed it (I am still not entirely convinced there isn't another Jumper out there on the side of the Capitol that could happen across this), but it goes without saying that we were successfully placed in our assigned Districts with only Fish knowing even part of what was going on. The leaders of the Resistance were strongly opposed to the idea of telling her, but I won them over once I told them that the only realities in which they'd come anywhere near winning were those in which Fish knew what was going on.

I lied. This is the only world in which Fish knew anything. There is a quote famous in your world and a few others that I stick by. If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always gotten. So yes, the unusual circumstances I face are partially my doing but how could I let the Resistance try this plan once more without making a few alterations of my own?

* * *

_Jon refused to let me have control, he was hell bent on being slightly creepy and adressing my readers... XD_

_I hope this managed to answer more questions than it created. :) If that did manage confuse you, please don't hesistate to ask me questions! :)_

_Comments and feedback are as welcome as always! :D_

_Wow...that was a lot of smilies for me..._

* * *

_Invisible One_


	13. Chapter 13

There were only two days left until we were expected to enter the slaughterhouse. Today, there was the skills test, tomorrow we were to be paraded around like prize animals and interrogated, and the day after that we were scheduled to kill each other. Lovely itinerary, isn't it?

Sam and I slowly got ready for the day of absolute Hell ahead, dragging out our time alone for as long as possible even if we weren't actually doing anything worth remembering later. I couldn't help but wonder what Sam had up her sleeve for today, but I had a distinct feeling she was as hell bent on pissing people off as I was.

She held on to my hand for dear life as walked to the dining room and then down to our skills performance. We waited in line as each Tribute in one by one until it was my turn.

I entered standing tall in my ghost form, fully ready to piss some people off. I nearly laughed when I realized they hadn't been smart enough to put up a ghost shield around the area in which the Game Makers resided. Good, it would only make my plan so much easier.

"Having fun making my life a living hell yet?" I smirked as I disappeared from sight right as my smart ass comment ended.

I floated to the ceiling and reappeared for only a fraction of a second before I turned intangible and flew to overshadow my first unlucky victim.

"Actually, I find it quite amusing." I left the first guy and went to the next.

"You really are idiots for thinking I wouldn't take advantage of the lack of a ghost shield around here."

Time for the next idiot. "I mean really, how else did you expect a half-ghost to surprise you?"

Oh look! I get to overshadow a girl now! "I guess my existence alone really fucks up your thinking…" I trailed off and jumped to my final victim.

"...but I really thought you'd be used to the idea by now." I left the last body and moved back to the center of the room to reappear.

"Then again, it might just be the fact that I'm royally pissed off this time that's throwing you for a loop." I left after that, I didn't give a damn what they thought of me or what I had done, I just wanted to get the hell out of there and piss them off some more while I was at it if possible.

Twenty minutes later, Sam met me in the District 12 penthouse where the rest of our group was already convened to watch the final results.

It wasn't until they started listing off scored that I realized I hadn't actually bothered to pay attention to any of the other Tributes until now. I seriously hope this doesn't come back around to bite me in the ass.

The order started as usual, District One first.

Jon: 9

Heda: 10

Sorrin: 9

Morra: 11

Francis: 8

Ratlah: 7

Antonio: 9

Erin: 8

Fritz: 12

Cassandra: 6

Gilbert: 8

Lily: 5

Tanner: 4

Emily: 6

Eric: 5

Alyssa: 7

Steve: 12

Clarissa: 3

Ben: 10

Asa: 9

Simon: 3

Fish: 10

Me: 12

Sam: 10

I honestly didn't think they'd reward me for overshadowing them. All this tells me is I need more practice with pissing people off.

On a secondary comment: Who the fucking hell is this Steve guy and how the hell did he get a 12? I know why Fritz and I pulled off 12's, but how the hell did he manage it? He's not from a Career District and he's pretty far down on the list; I'll have to keep an eye on him.

Our conversation scattered for a while until Jon went deathly silent for a few minutes. This wasn't anything new, but the look on his face worried us all and it wasn't helped ay all when he finally did speak up.

"Shit." He didn't speak for a few minutes after that until Fritz finally asked him what was wrong.

"There's another Jumper out there."

"I thought you said there weren't anymore out there." Both Jon and Fritz were worried by this development, therefore the rest of us were as well.

"Well, apparently I was wrong, Fritz. And I can't tell if they're on our side or not." Jon was pissed and while he was taking it out on us, I could tell he was mostly pissed off at himself for missing this. "Give me a moment." A look of concentration crossed his features for a few seconds before he popped out of sight.

When he reappeared, he dropped a book right next to him which I assume he'd snagged from one of the other realities. I didn't know he could bring things from other worlds into this one. The title read "The Hunger Games."

"What the hell is this?" Ben was the first to speak.

"Simply put, the other Jumper has done the same thing I am and used an author from the only free world to relate their story. I can't tell what reality they originate from though." Congratulations Jon, you just succeeded in not making any form of sense once more. "I can't believe I missed this! It's been out for years and I didn't realize it was the work of another Jumper until now. I am such a damn idiot."

"Calm down, will you? We both know you lose what little control you actually have when you get pissed off."

Jon rolled his eyes. "Brilliant words of encouragement there, Fritz." He promptly disappeared once more and it was several seconds before we could actually see him again.

"You were saying?" Fritz smirked as Jon regained his composure enough to remain in sight.

"I get it, smart ass." Fritz got smacked upside the head as Jon's anger slowly vanished.

"Care to explain what the hell is going on for the rest of us? Or are we supposed to just sit here dumbly while the two of you come dangerously close to yaoi?" Fish smirked even when they both smacked her upside the head and reassured all of us that they were most certainly NOT gay or dating.

Jon recovered from Fish's comment first while Fritz just sat there quietly trying not to set himself up for more verbal abuse. "There's another Jumper out there. That's all you need to know until we can figure out whose side they're on."

"Great. So you have no idea whether we're royally screwed or not. Lovely." Asa has finally spoken up for the first time since Jon brought the book back earlier. If there wasn't sarcasm in her voice, I'm not half ghost.

The look on Ben's face told me he was about to get himself killed before he even opened his mouth. "Well...I could screw you and then we'd know for sure." I'll see you in the Ghost Zone, buddy.

"Do you want me to fucking kill you?" If looks could kill, Asa would have blown the whole damn world up.

"I'll take the fuck without the killing, thanks." He was really damn lucky she didn't strangle him. If I had said that, Sam would have thrown something at me and shoved me in the Fenton Thermos for a few days...or years.

Sadly for him, Fish had no problem with making him pay. A knife narrowly missed the side of Ben's head. "I won't miss next time, darling." The calmness in her voice was scarier than if she had screamed enough to bite his fucking head off.

"And this is the reason that girls scare the shit out of me," Ben muttered as he shrank back behind Simon.

"I hate to side with them," Yeah right, that's exactly what the look on your face says. "but you did earn it." The smirk on Simon's face only grew as he spoke to remind us all he was actually there.

"Destiny never did this to me…" He trailed off as Asa's gaze turned deadly again.

"She's also a fucking slut. You do realize her friends were saying it was the end of the world when she said she hadn't fucked anyone in over a month, right?" Right, so for anyone that managed to miss it, Asa apparently hates this Destiny girl.

"But still…" He was forced to trail off.

"Oh, be quiet." Another knife zoomed past Ben's head. "Damn, he moved."

"The fuck, Fish?! You seriously just tried to kill me!"

Fish smirked. "No, if I had meant to kill you, you'd sure as hell know it. I'll save the killing for the Games. Right now, you're a perfect practice target."

"Why did I ask the crazy girl out?" Simon is so quiet that even though he'd spoken just a few minutes ago, I'd already nearly forgotten he was there.

"Because it's a perfect counter to your insane level of normalness," Fish stated smugly from her spot across the room.

"Hey Fish, you're sitting awful far away from your fuck buddy. Why don't you two move a little closer together? I bet it'd make it easier to make-out." Jon winked out of existence right as a knife flew through where he'd been when he finished the comment. It is fair to note that both Fish and Simon were blushing though.

Sam shook her head in mock shame. "And THESE are the people we're supposed to rely to get our asses out of the arena ALIVE?" I laughed.

"If you have that little confidence in us, you might as well go fuck now so you don't die with any regrets." Fritz turned me bright red with the comment, but Sam somehow brushed it off effortlessly.

"I'd rather do it in full view of the Capitol officials just to piss them off a bit. I'm sure they'd love to air porn on national television, right Danny?" I couldn't respond. I was too busy trying not to lose my pants from embarrassment.

"Damn it, Sam…" That was all I could get out when my pants finally turned intangible on me. My "loyal" girlfriend only laughed at my predicament.

"Getting a little ahead of yourself there, Danny?" I glared at her. How the hell could Sam get through this so effortlessly?

"She's dealt with it for several years now. And yes, you did just say that out loud." God damn it! There went my pants again. Why did Jon have to say that?

"Quit teasing my boyfriend and go back to cuddling with Fish." Sam...what the hell? What about...shit...what the hell is his name?

"Hey! I am not dead yet, Sam!" Oh...Simon… His name must have slipped my mind.

* * *

_The real Fish was here tonight and she was hell bent on embarassing the shit out of my poor characters..._

_Meh. I got a laugh out of their embarassment. I'm happy. :P_

_Comments and feedback (and, according to Fish's sister, appearently questions for the characters too...) are as welcome as always! :D_

* * *

_Invisible One_


	14. Chapter 14

I woke up bright and early by force on the day of the Tribute Parade. I hated it last year and I only hate it even more this time around. The only reason the parade even exists is to give to Capitol yet another chance to rub the Games into the faces of everyone in the country.

On the bright side, I wasn't forced into some ridiculous outfit - as long as I stayed in my ghost form, my designer was happy. Sam wasn't pushed too far out of her comfort zone either as they gave her a black dress with my emblem on the front and green lights that moved to mimic the endless swirls of the Ghost Zone. My only problem with it was that it was that the length revealed more to the world than I would have liked; it was short enough Sam could have practically worn it as a shirt. While she wasn't a fan of the length either, that wasn't Sam's main problem with it. She couldn't stand how tight it was - she said it restricted her movement significantly more than she would have liked.

As I looked around at the other Tributes, I realized something. Jumpsuits had suddenly become very popular with the designers for the male tributes. None of the others were black, but aside from the color, they were pretty much identical to mine. Every girl wore something reminiscent of Sam's Goth style (I can't possibly imagine why) with only a pop of color to match the boy next to them. There was nothing of note in any of this year's designs except for the fact that only those in my little group had my DP symbol on them.

I knew that my group had been planning things without me, I figured that out even being as clueless as I am, but no one had told me what they were up to. The closest I'd gotten to finding out were the tiny snippets of some song that I had heard from each of them. I could only assume the matching logos on all of their outfits was a part of their scheming somehow.

The Parade itself was rather uneventful, but the interviews were a different story.

Being from District One, Jon was first. His interview was nothing out of the ordinary with just the normal, standard questions. The most notable thing he said was: "I know more than any of you could possibly hope to understand," followed by his signature smirk. Like I said, everything was normal, that is, at least until the end.

Right as he was about to exit the stage, he started singing.

_"Dear boss, I write this note_

_For to tell you of my plight_

_And at the time of writing,_

_I am not a pretty sight._

_My body is all black and blue_

_My face, a deathly grey_

_And I hope you'll understand_

_Why Phantom's not at work today."_

He cut it off there and I instantly recognized it as part of the song I'd heard the others singing all week. I didn't have time to question it before the next interview started. I'd nearly forgotten about the incident all together until Fritz's turn came about.

He was asked about his score as the final question, to which he simply answered "I think it speaks for itself. Don't mess with me." He did the same as Jon as he got up as if to leave the stage before he started to sing as well, only with what I assumed was the next verse of the song.

"_While working on the thirteenth floor,_

_Some bricks I had to clear_

_And to throw them down from off the top,_

_Seemed quite the good idea._

_But the foreman, he would not agree,_

_He being an awful sod,_

_He said I'd have to cart them down the ladder_

_In my hand."_

Just as Jon did, Fritz cut it off after he ended his verse and left quietly. I heard nothing more of it until Be appeared on the stage and followed the same pattern.

_"Well, clearing all those bricks by hand_

_It seemed so very slow_

_So I hoisted up a barrel_

_And secured the rope below._

_But in my haste to do the job,_

_I was too blind to see_

_That a barrel full of buildin' bricks_

_Is heavier than me."_

Next came Asa, the only difference was that she changed the key to fit her higher voice.

_"So when I untied the rope,_

_Of course, the barrel fell like lead._

_And clinging tightly to the rope,_

_I started up instead._

_I shot up like a rocket,_

_And to my dismay I found_

_That half way up_

_I met the bloody barrel comin' down."_

Simon changed the key once more after his forgettable interview and started in on his verse in a shy voice.

_"Well, the barrel broke my shoulder_

_As towards the ground it sped._

_And when I reached the top,_

_I banged the pulley with my head._

_I clung on tight, now numb with shock,_

_From that almighty blow,_

_And the barrel spilled out half it's bricks,_

_Some thirteen floors below."_

Fish came next, and after supplying a more memorable interview for District 11, she continued where Simon had left off.

_"Now, when the bricks had fallen,_

_From the barrel to the floor,_

_I then outweighed the barrel_

_So I started down once more._

_Still clinging tightly to the rope,_

_I raced towards the ground._

_And I landed on those broken bricks,_

_Laying scattered all around."_

I was barely paying any attention to my own interview as my mind finally fully processed that I knew that song from somewhere. Witty banter was my savior as I lazily answered each question while trying to figure out where the hell I knew that song from.

Only the start of Sam's interview snapped me out of my thoughts, but I still couldn't really pay attention to it. I was waiting for her to sing her part of the song before every Tribute was lined up on the stage at the end of the whole thing.

_"Well, as I lay there moaning,_

_I though I'd passed the worst._

_But when the barrel hit the top_

_Was then the bottom burst._

_A shower of bricks rained down on me_

_I didn't have a hope._

_And in the great confusion_

_I let go the bloody rope."_

Sam then moved to her spot on the stage while the rest of us filed in to join her. I grabbed her hand while I waited for the final verse I suspected was coming. As soon as the interviewer finally shut up, everyone in my group started in on the last verse in perfect unison.

_"Well, the barrel now was heavier_

_So it started down once more,_

_And it landed right on top of me_

_As I lay there on the floor."_

Halfway through the verse, I started singing along as the words seemed to appear in my mind.

_"It broke three ribs_

_And my left arm._

_And I can only say"_

The others cut off abruptly for the last line, and I knew I was expected to sing it solo.

_"That I hope you'll understand why Phantom's not at work today."_

There was an applause louder than any I'd heard before as we were quickly ushered off the stage, no doubt so they could keep the damage to a minimum. I knew without asking the others that that song some symbolism for the Resistance. I understood that part of it was me, but the rest was still a mystery.

"What do you know, he actually knew it," Fish remarked when we reached the penthouse.

"I told you not to underestimate me," Jon responded. "It did take him a little longer to catch on than I had hoped though."

It didn't take a genius to figure out that Jon was the reason the tune had sounded to familiar when it first started. "You mind telling me what the hell you did?"

"The realm of dreams is one of the worlds I travel to. It's a little harder to navigate, but I managed to find your dreams specifically. You've been hearing that very song in your sleep for the past week now." Well, there's one way of influencing someone.

My face started to heat up as I suddenly remembered what one of those dreams was about. "You didn't see THAT dream, did you?" Jon caught on to my meaning first, but I could tell everyone else knew exactly what I was talking about as well.

"I had the misfortune of catching the tail-end of that one." My face turned even more red at that information. "If it makes you feel any better, the first dream I stumbled upon had much more adult content than yours. Mind you, I was eight at the time. That most certainly not what you want to see at that age or any age." He shuddered a bit at the thought. You really had to feel bad for the guy - God only knows what other mentally scarring things he's had to have seen over the years.

"Okay, moving on." I wanted to change the subject before something else happened to embarrass me farther. "Would anyone care to explain what that song was about."

"I vote we let him figure it out for himself." Fish said. No one opposed her.

"Thanks guys. Leave the clueless one out of the loop. I feel so loved." Sarcasm, gotta love it.

"I'm sure you'll figure it out eventually, Clueless One." Sam smirked as she wrapped an arm around my shoulder.

* * *

_I have got to start going to bed earlier... It's gonna suck when school starts back up after being up until 3 in the morning for two weeks straight. :P_

_Anyways, comments and feedback are as welcome as always. :D_

* * *

_Invisible One_


	15. Chapter 15

_WARNING: This starts off with a bit of brain rot... It's not too bad, I promise!_

* * *

It was the last night before the Games and I held Sam in my arms as we lay on my bed. We'd been laying there for a good half hour with no success with getting to sleep before she turned over to face me. There was a look in her eyes I hadn't seen before as she suddenly pulled me into a long, deep kiss.

"Sam?" I asked when we parted, this wasn't something she normally did.

Even in the dark, I could see her blush before she spoke. "Danny, I want…" She didn't finish her sentence.

"What is it, Sam?" I knew how my mind wanted to finish that sentence, but I wasn't going to assume that's what she wanted based an unfinished sentence. She sat up before she spoke again and I followed suit.

"I don't want to go into the Games tomorrow with regrets about anything I did or didn't do. I know we're all strong, but there's no guarantee any of us will live through it." She paused, her face flushing again. "I'd regret it if I went in there with us...you know….at least once." She went silent and turned away. "I kinda want to do it...if you want to, that is." Did I want it? Not just yes, hell yes. I've wanted it for a while, but I didn't want to push her. As much as I've wanted it, I also didn't need sex to be happy with her.

"Are you sure?" Even though it was her idea, I still didn't want to push her. I wanted her to know she had every right to change her mind about this if she wanted to.

"I'm sure Danny, if you want it, that is." She was the brightest red I'd ever seen her when I kissed her and slowly laid her back on the bed.

I pulled back. "Tell me if you change your mind about this, okay? I won't be offended." I knew this was huge for her, more so than it was for me. She didn't like people touching her to the point that outside of me, Tucker was the only other person who could get away with giving her a hug on occasion. For her to let me touch her so intimately meant that she really trusted me, not just enough that she'd tolerate a hug but enough so that she actually didn't mind my touch.

"Okay, but I don't think I'll change my mind," she replied.

I smiled down at her and it wasn't until she gave a slightly evil smirk that I realized her hands had already started wandering.

* * *

Sam was wrapped firmly in my arms when I woke up at seven the next morning. She shifted as the alarm clock went off only seconds after I opened my eyes. She only mumbled at the intruding sound and tried to burrow herself farther into my hold. I laughed at her antics and got a half hearted "Shut up." and a light smack upside the head before she went back to attempting to get away from the buzzing.

"Come on Sam, you gotta get up," I said softly.

"I don't wanna." I laughed again, she was slightly childish when she didn't want to get up in the morning. She smacked me again, a little harder this time, before she finally started to unravel herself from me and get up.

I rolled over and grabbed the sweats that had been thrown in the floor the night before and turned around to see Sam moving slowly off the bed. I thought it was just because she was still half asleep until a heard a soft "ow" come from her way.

I got a little worried. "You okay Sam?" I didn't hurt her, did I?

She waved me off. "It's nothing I wasn't expecting."

"Shit. I'm sorry, Sam."

She shot me a glare for a second before speaking. "Danny, this happens. Deal with it, because I sure as hell don't regret what caused it and if you ever even begin think I regret it, I will personally hunt your little ass down and make you pay." I let it drop even though I really didn't like the idea that I had caused her pain, even if she knew it was coming.

Nothing more was said of it as we each showered and got dressed for the few minutes we had between now and when our stylists got ahold of us with this year's uniform. We ate slowly, still playing our little game of seeing just how much we could piss our escort off without her getting on to us. We were finally forced our separate ways as we were dressed and prepped for the start of the Games. I knew I wouldn't get to see Sam again until we were in the arena, but maybe it was a good thing with all the distracting images floating through my mind.

This year, we got a black jumpsuit with three-quarter sleeves and a District color on the shoulders. Our District got silver colored shoulders, no surprise there. It was clear they were working off the seriously fucked up fashions the revelation of my identity has caused. You have no idea how many times I've seen people walking down the streets with color changing hair or eyes of opposite colors. It was kinda creepy and slightly annoying.

I barely had time to process anything going around me as I was directed to my tube with the supposedly improved tracker ship in my arm. I didn't bother staying in the given jumpsuit, I much preferred my own and transformed before the ground beneath me started to lift itself up.

In the ten second count down, I went back over our plan. I was to fly to the Cornucopia and grab what we needed while the others made a run for it and I'd meet them a few minutes into the Games.

I didn't expect something to short out my powers about half way back from my trip to the Cornucopia. I really should have expected it though considering there was no way the Capitol would just leave them all defenseless against a half-ghost hybrid. I almost thought it was a part of the new tracking chip until I turned just long enough to see a gun aimed at me and a smirk on the owners face. I forced myself back on my feet and ran for it, seeing the others not too far off.

I heard footsteps gaining on me, but I couldn't force my legs to move much faster. Suddenly, a knife flew past me and I heard the squelch of an impact. I knew that was Fish's work, the only thing I didn't know was where she got the knife.

A second blade whizzed past me only a second before I made it back to the group and we all took off. There was a third attack in the back, but they either retreated once we had banded together, or someone else had picked them off.

We finally stopped after running a mile or so. It wasn't until Jon spoke that I realized the one thing I had forgotten to grab.

"You forgot Fish's knives didn't you?" He smirked. "You always do, you know." He pulled six or seven throwing knives from his pocket as I finally realized where Fish had gotten the knives she'd used earlier to save my hide. "You're lucky I knew to keep some on hand, otherwise you'd have been screwed." Yes, I get it Jon, can we shut up about it now?

"And it only took you...how many tries to figure out how to move things from one world to another?" Jon only glared at Fritz's comment, though I personally think Jon deserved it with all the crap he gives us.

I felt my face heat up when I saw Sam, the images I'd only just managed to get rid of quickly returning. Jon smirked again. "Yet another thing you always do."

Both Sam and I turned bright shades of red. "How the hell did you know?"

"Simple, you just told me." If it wouldn't be against my best interests, I'd have strangled Jon right then.

* * *

_Comments and feedback are as welcome as always! :D_

* * *

_Invisible One_


	16. Chapter 16

My powers came back only an hour and one failed ambush on us later and the sun started to set only an hour after that; the Game Makers were making this first day shorter than usual. Being in the dark itself didn't scare me or the others, it was what was in the dark that worried me, not the lack of light. I could see perfectly and the others had their own ways of making do in the dark. Fish's developing powers allowed her to see better than the normal human in the dark, not as well as me, but still better than anyone out there attempting to kill us. Jon hadn't said anything, but I suspected he'd just pull a flashlight out of those pockets of his (that had appeared out of seemingly nowhere on his jumpsuit!) if he really needed any light. Fritz could function just as well in the dark as he could in the light, sometimes better, when it came to fighting while Ben and Asa had their own mysterious ways of getting around. Sam was used to the dark after countless late nights running around with me. The only person I worried about was the same one as always: Simon. I had pretty much written him off as a lost cause by now, but I figured we could get him out of here if we really needed to.

It didn't look like anyone would try to ambush us again though, not tonight at least. We had done a number on the first group, killing two of the four and injuring another. I still couldn't wrap my mind around the fact that these cold-blooded murders were necessary to survive, but it had to be done. I'd blow this whole damn arena up and free all of us before I'd kill an innocent. But, sadly, I'd yet to find a way to destroy this place.

This arena was different from the last: it seemed to be based around the four seasons as I'd seen heavy snow in one section, a dessert in another, browning leaves in yet another, and green plants all around in the area we were camped in now. Only the area within a half mile radius around the Cornucopia was neutral, there was no specific season there, it seemed to be a constant room temperature and it was never too bright or too dark.

We set up camp for the night, an ecto-fire burning and strips of fresh meat accompanied the water I'd made form my ice and the cool breeze starting to set in. Everything seemed to be fine until I noticed Ben get a little fidgety. Asa noticed it too and seemed to be on high alert, as if she knew what was going on with him.

Suddenly, he got up and took off. Asa was after him within a split second, easily catching up. When she got him to stop, they were still well within my hearing, but my gut was telling me that whatever conversation they were about to have wasn't for my ears, so I tuned out their words. I paid enough attention that I would know if someone tried to attack, but not enough to catch even the gist of what they were saying.

* * *

Shit, he was running again. I had hoped this would stop once the Games started, I'd hope the reality of It all would cause even the deepest parts of his subconscious to realize there was no escape, neither mentally or physically. I really should have known better. He'd gotten better about it during the weeks before the Games. He'd stopped physically running and had only retreated into his own mind once or twice, but his urge to escape was back again.

I caught up to him pretty fast, we were less than a hundred meters away from the campsite when I got him to stop. He practically collapsed against the nearest tree, but I knew it wasn't from fatigue. He was fighting not to completely disappear into his own mind; even in this state, he knew we couldn't really afford to have him out of commission. It was my unspoken job to keep him as rooted to the real world as possible, both for his sake and everyone else's.

"What's wrong?" I tried to make my voice soothing, but I was unsure of myself. Usually, I just sat there by his side, holding him until he found his way out of his mind since he usually refuses to let anyone really help him, but I couldn't do that this time. I needed him to talk to me so I could drag him out sooner.

He was silent for a few minutes, but I knew he heard me as I watched him search for the words he needed. "We don't belong here." There were probably a dozen ways that could be taken under normal circumstances, but with everything that has gone on lately, that number was probably in the hundreds now.

"Why not?" He went silent once more, but I was glad he was talking to me at all. He usually didn't start to even acknowledge me until his fit was almost over.

"Don't you feel it too? The people around us try to include us, but we just don't belong with them, no matter how hard they try. The only time I belong anywhere is when I'm with you." He stopped, trying to word himself carefully. "It's not just because of how I feel about you, it's always been this way. I didn't belong anywhere before I met you, and now I only feel like I belong when I'm around you." I knew what he was talking about, I did feel it. I'd always just let my social awkwardness and inability to trust people account for it though. The only time I ever felt even remotely close to actually belonging with anyone other than him was in choir at school, and some days even that fails me.

"I do, Ben. I feel it too." Simple responses were the only way to get him to keep going on his own train of thought, anything more and he'd start to overthink things and only get dragged deeper into his mind.

I almost didn't catch his next whispered words. "It's this world. We don't belong in this world." If it weren't for Jon, I probably honestly wouldn't heed his words, but Jon had proved just how possible that situation was.

And for some reason, his notion just felt right.

* * *

They didn't know? Every other time I've met them, those two have known they weren't in the reality they were born in. They never grow up in the right reality. I'm not sure why, but my theory is there's a Jumper somewhere in their family trees and the gene slid them to a different reality when they were born. It's hard to explain, but every instance of that particular pair was born at the exact same time. Every time I've found them, they've really belonged to the world I'd just left, they were always just one reality away from their own.

I know I shouldn't have been listening, but it's not my fault he ran so close to where I'd been...taking care of business. Ben was partially right, in a way they both did and didn't belong in this world. They weren't born here, but they did grow up here.

Both of them had a unique blend of genes, both those of the normal kind and those that could only be described as extraordinary. Asa's energy abilities, for example. She didn't even know the start of what she could do if she tried. I know Ben has the same abilities tucked away, but the power of belief is an amazing thing and he won't find his powers until he finds proof that Asa really has something out of the ordinary going on. The difference is the belief systems they were raised on. Their powers fit right in with what Asa grew up around, but went strictly against Ben's own background.

I still didn't know where these abilities came from, no matter how hard I tried to figure it out. They could have a half-ghost hybrid somewhere in their ancestry for all I knew.

I'd seen what they could really do several times, but they were never this stunted in their powers at this point in time. I hated to do it, but I would probably have to step in or they wouldn't be anywhere near ready when the real fight started. I preferred to let things run their natural course and allow them to discover what they were capable of on their own, but it didn't look like I could do that this time. It would be better the leave things alone, but I've already lost this battle and these lives several times, I will not do it again.

* * *

_Comments and feedback are as welcome as always! :D_

* * *

_Invisible One_


	17. Chapter 17

_Yup...I missed an update... (as my Latin teacher would put it,) I am a terrible person. Oh well, I'm sure you're all still alive out there...somewhere..._

* * *

I heard the footsteps before I saw him appear. Jon came into my sights just a few minutes after I'd managed to drag Ben back into reality; it didn't take a rocket scientist to realize he'd heard to full exchange. It also wasn't difficult to figure out that he had to know whether Ben was just talking nonsense or if he was onto something.

"Spill." It was one simple word, but I knew it held all the meaning I'd meant it to, the real question was whether or not Jon would listen to me.

"Spill what? I don't have a drink with me." Cue the annoyingly cocky smirk that I'd love to smack right off that face of his.

"What would happen if I were to kill you right here and now?" An evil smirk of my own made itself present before Jon responded once more.

"You'd lose your one connection to the world you belong in." You know, I'd love to believe I'd been the one to make him crack so easily, but I knew better than that. Jon wouldn't have said that unless he was already planning on telling us.

"Are you going to tell us the truth, or are you going to make me outsmart you first?" The first option would work. The second? Not so much.

"While it would greatly amuse me to watch you attempt to outsmart me, we don't have the time for me to indulge myself." Oh, look. His pain in the ass smirk was back.

I suddenly heard a slight chuckle come from beside me and remembered it wasn't just me and Jon at this showdown. Ben stopped his short laugh and spoke. "I'll have to agree that watching the two of you fight is entertaining, but if there's something important Jon needs to tell us, we really ought to go back to camp first." He was probably right, odds were that if Jon had anything of use to say, the rest of the group needed to hear it too. Jon simply nodded before starting to head back.

Ben grabbed my hand and even now I had to fight the reflex to pull away for a fraction of a second. A year and a half ago, I wouldn't have fought the reflex, I would have pulled away and looked at him like he'd really lost his mind. Then again, a year and a half ago, I was still a blind idiot to my own feelings. I had to fight back a laugh as I realized that Ben and I were much like Danny and Sam, the main difference was that in our relationship, the girl was the clueless one.

I smiled a little as I remembered one little text from our seventh grade year. Yes, our families had managed to scrap up the money to buy us each our own cell phone - we were in the upper half of the middle class and therefore had enough money in the house to support us having our own phones. Our first ones were nothing fancy, hell mine had a broken screen the entire time I had it, but what we had as far as phones went isn't important.

What's important is the one text he sent me that really should have ended my cluelessness, but didn't.

I remember, mostly from sitting there just staring at it for god only knows how long several times, that he sent it at 11:06 P.M., May fifth of out seventh grade year three years ago.

**Don't freak out when you see it, it will almost definitely make several things awkward.**

**I love you, and I have for quite a while, but didn't really realize it.**

Yes, that's word for word, and yes, I do have it memorized. I didn't know how to respond at the time, I never have been good with figuring out my feelings, but honestly, that should have been what clued me in. I already knew he had a crush on me the year before thanks to his sister, but this was new territory, something I didn't know how to respond to, and I told him just that.

**Wow… Not to make fun or anything, i just dont know how to respond to that.**

You'd think I'd realize I had at least some level of feelings for him after seeing that, after how much it was on my mind for the next several weeks, or even after I had it memorized and realized for the first time that he texted with damn near perfect grammar.

Nope. I didn't realize it. I was clueless, and it took until he left for those first Games for me to realize it. It wasn't until I found that old phone again with that texted saved on it that I realized how badly I wanted to tell him the same thing, to tell him I love him.

And now I feel like I'm drowning in a bunch of sappy crap.

I hate when the overly girly part of my mind kicks in and makes me feel like I'm in some really bad, tragic romance novel.

Kill me now.

No. I didn't mean that literally.

It wasn't until I was jarred out of my thoughts by the sudden announcement of "We're here" that I realized I'd gotten lost in my own thoughts on the way back to the campsite. What had taken only three or four minutes to run had taken at least ten to walk back.

Jon turned to us just after we'd sat back down. "Normally, I'd just sit around as you tried to figure out what the hell was going on, but I already know that option will work against us. Where to start though? Your story isn't really an easy one to tell, I myself am still trying to piece together bits and pieces of it."

"Oh, would you just get on with it already?" Good, so Ben was just as annoyed by Jon as I was at times...

* * *

_Yup. That's where I'm cutting it off, and you get to live with it. :P_

_Yay for random background information! :P_

_On a side note, some one finally took me up on the whole "ask the characters questions" thing I said something about a few chapters back (five or six, I think.)_

_**For Simon: Did you ask Fish out or did she ask you? And how did that go?**_

_Simon: *stutters* I...I...I asked her out...after...five failed attempts... I...uh...I couldn't force myself to go up to her the first three times...then...I, uh...I kinda chickened out the other two...  
__  
**For Fish: What's the quickest way to make Simon blush? I think he'd be really cute while blushing.**_

_Fish: I have been told that I am obligated to inform you all that my answer isn't really child appropriate. I also feel it nessecary to state that I don't care. Now...how to make Simon blush? Easy. *whispers in his ear* Fuck me. *Simon turns bright red before falling over* See? Easy. ^_^_

_Me: ...what oddballs I have for characters..._

_Comments and feedback are as welcome as always! :D_

* * *

_Invisible One_


	18. Bonus Content: Random Words From Jon

_This is just random bonus content that has nothing to do with the story. Read it if you want to, ignore it if you don't. I don't really care, but Jon might._

* * *

**_Bonus Content: Random Words From Jon_**

* * *

Hello.

It's good to see you again. Still alive too.

I've missed you.

You appear confused. I forgot. You haven't met me yet.

Don't look at me like that! You should know I'm not crazy. You had been my best friend in a couple of lives.

No, we will not play any silly "Can you guess my name without me telling you?" games to try and prove that I do know you. They are a waste of time. Besides, it changes in the different realities. You've been named everything from Ariel to Zitkaduta.

Yes, that is an actual name. Yes, you were named that once.

You've also dyed your hair in the different times we've met. I hate to tell you this when I've only just met this version of you, but the bubble-gum pink Mohawk does not look good on you. I wouldn't do it.

Plus, it made it easier for them to spot you.

I think I should step back a bit and explain some more before you panic and try to kill me.

You've tried to kill me before, you know. No hard feelings though.

I've learned not to hold many grudges, it generally just ends in more attempts at my life. I've already died once, I don't care to do so again.

That's off topic. I need to explain what exactly is happening.

You see, I'm a Jumper. That's what the realities usually end up calling me anyways. As a Jumper, I get a pretty spiffy punishment. What did I do? I'm not certain yet. I think I was born and that ticked them off. Anyways, being a Jumper means my life can be hell. I exist in several different realities all at once.

Well, I suppose that's not technically correct either.

I've yet to fully get down how to explain this, so please, bare with me. There are countless different physical forms of me, one physical body for each reality, but there is only one consciousness among them. One mind to control countless bodies. My consciousness traveled significantly faster than the speed of light, lingering in control of each body only just long enough to give it a minute direction before moving to the next one. Therefore, physically, I do in fact exist in several realities at once, but as a conscious, I only exist in one world at a time.

Yes, I am aware that sounds insane and nearly impossible to believe, but I stopped caring a long time ago. I'm relatively sure you will at least entertain the very idea that it might just be possible, and that is enough to appease me for now.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go stop Hitler from finding the key to immortal life. If you think he was bad in one lifetime, just imagine what he could do with no end to his life. Trust me, I've seen it, it's nothing good.

If you think the reign you know him to have held was bad, you have yet to see anything as far as pain and suffering goes.

Oh, that's right - I've yet to tell you one tiny little detail of how the various worlds work. Every version of reality runs on it's own timeline, each one can be anywhere from seconds to millennia off from any other. I'm still searching for the reasons for this, but I'm sure I'll find it eventually.

Now, not to sound rude or anything, but can I go now?

* * *

_Jon talked Fish into writing him his own short story, this is what he got out of that._

_(Since this is technically her work...) The above story thing belongs to my cousin, who goes by Fish in real life and Ratlah on here._

_Anyway, it doesn't have much to do with the story other than giving a little more characterization to Jon, but Fish and I would still love comments and feedback! :D_

* * *

_Invisible One_

_~Ratlah~_


	19. Chapter 19

"Where do I start? Your story is so twisted I'm not entirely sure where the beginning is, if it exists at all." That wasn't entirely true. I knew where to start; I just didn't know what all I could say without slipping things about the others that they needn't know. Simon's fate, for example, might be a good thing to avoid telling. I was walking on thin ice with what I planned to say as it was.

"To begin with, there are rare people who appear in every version of reality. Thus far, I have only found three. Asa, Ben, you are two of these people." I'll conveniently leave out that Fritz is the third; it only leads to trouble when he knows. "Those people who are present in every reality are also seem to be tied to their other versions in one way or another. You two always find each other and you're also never raised in the right world. The third person who appears in every reality cannot be killed by that which has killed him in another reality." Slip up number one - someone is going to ask me about that later. I really should have thought this through more.

"Please, do go on. Maybe something you say will have made sense by the end of this." Fish made the same comment that she always does. Well, it was the same comment she makes whenever she's here to hear this. I glanced over at Fritz. Crap. He was already thinking about my slip up, he'll figure it out if I'm not careful.

"The pair of you were born in the reality closest to this one; the one I always visit before appearing here I think." Hopefully, I wouldn't have to say anything more for them to understand it. Thinking back, my single slip up actually provided almost all the information required to figure out who the third person appearing in all the worlds was, and with his mind, Fritz could easily figure it out. Sure, it's possible that he might keep his head on straight if he finds out, but it has never happened before.

"So the feeling of not belonging is more than just a social inhibition, we really don't belong here on some level." I saw the light of comprehension spark in Asa's eyes as she spoke. "My energy web...that's why it never has linked to the others the way it should." Poor Ben, he was so confused by her words, but I knew what she was talking about. She may never have told him, but I've heard about it several times. "It doesn't match up because the energy between us and everyone else is different since it belongs to a different version of reality."

"I absolutely hate to interject," No, she didn't hate having to interrupt, Sam was just falling back on sarcasm as I expected her to. "But, would you care to explain what this 'energy web' thing is?" I saw a look of relief cross over Ben's face for only a split second before he masked it. I knew why he was relieved - he wouldn't have to worry about whether or not Asa would kill him for asking if she'd said something about it before. She wouldn't have really killed him; maybe she would have smacked him or threatened to strangle him, but she wouldn't actually kill him.

Asa was silent for a moment, her eyes closed as she tried to figure out how to explain it. I couldn't blame her, it wasn't easy for her to explain this. It took me three tries to actually understand it. Half the time, she just didn't bother trying at all. She finally spoke after a minute. "It's almost like a spider web made of energy and each person is where the threads intersect. Every person is a part of this web until they die, whether they want to be or not. With Ben and I, it's like someone cut us out of the web and then tried to glue us back in, but they weren't very careful about it, so we don't quite match up with everyone else. Some days, the gap is small enough that is doesn't cause much of a disconnect to the outside world, but some days it's large enough we can't really connect to anyone but each other. Without the energy connecting us, it's difficult for us to function around and with other people at all. We're just cut off from everyone." I gave a slight nod of approval, that was her best attempt at explaining so far. For once, I didn't see any confused faces in the crowd.

"You never told me that before." Ben, wrong thing to say.

"Before now, you would have passed it off as 'witchcraft nonsense'." She was right, he'd done that before.

"No, I wouldn't have." Don't try to deny it Ben, you most certainly would have.

The sarcasm in Asa's next words was evident before she even spoke. "Sure, and I'm the Easter Bunny, Danny's not half-ghost, and you're still a virgin." Ah, so this was one of those worlds where he'd made that mistake.

"Yes! I know! The friends with benefits deal was idiotic." Asa smirked "You're right, I would have called this web thing nonsense. Happy now?" Did he not realize she'd said that just to piss him off a bit and make him cave in? He always has seemed to miss it when she does that, at least with that comment.

Asa just smirked, not bothering with another remark.

I saw Fritz shift just a little and realized what he was about to ask. "So Jon, who is the other person you see in every world?"

I didn't let myself pause to think, that would only worsen the situation. "It's nothing you need to know." Then again, that was probably one of the worst things I could have said.

"You won't tell us, that only means it's someone else in this group and since you stated it was a guy, me, Simon, and Danny are the only eligible options left." Shit. I had really botched this up, he'd figure it out without any more help from me at this rate. His mind was one that wasn't fond of letting it's questions go unanswered. He never cared if it was someone else's question, but if it was his own he had to find the answer.

Thankfully, a scream cut off any response I may have needed to give. It was a scream of a young girl, most likely the thirteen year old from Fritz's District. I knew what was going to happen next, and on instinct then others seemed to know as well. In an instant, everyone was up and ready to fight except for Simon - he just hid in the middle, shielded by everyone else. It probably was the best thing he could do.

A lone arrow flew towards us, only to be stopped by a ghost shield, courtesy of Danny. There were several more arrows before Danny staring sending off blasts in the general direction from which they were coming. It took me entirely too long to find who was shooting at us. The culprit was Steve, the boy from District Nine. He retreated almost as soon as I made eye contact with him. He shot off one last arrow before running, one aimed at Fritz. Steve chose the wrong target, Fritz had been killed by an arrow once before and even though his back was turned as he kept an eye out for any warning of an ambush and other attackers, Fritz managed to move just a little to the left, raise his right hand, and catch the arrow aimed for him.

"Knew it wouldn't kill him." It wasn't until I'd already muttered it under my breath that I realized I was too close to Fritz to be saying something like that. It was a lost cause now, anyone could have figured it out.

"So it is me." A satisfied smirk came onto his face; he'd gotten the answer to his question. "If I can't be killed by anything that has killed me in another reality, what can do me in then?"

I sighed and conceded to the lost battle. "A lot more than you would think." Honestly, I didn't know if that was the truth or not, but I wasn't going to tell him that. "You may be essentially invincible to some things, but you are not immortal. The smallest change to something will allow it to kill you. You have been taken down by a normal arrow, a burning one, and a poisoned one, each in a different reality." Lies. He was hit once with each in the same reality, and that is what really did him in the end, but anyone listening in didn't need to know that he was still vulnerable to the flaming arrow. "Do not allow yourself to get cocky, you can be killed."

"Since when have I ever gotten cocky?" I suppose I could give him that point, at least in this reality. Generally, this version of him didn't have enough confidence in himself to get cocky about much of anything. Even with his martial arts, he won't let his skill go to his head until after he's won the match.

"In every other world in which you've figured it out." That I could say without lying.

The National Anthem filled the air as the simulated sun finally set over the horizon. Faces of the today's four casualties filled the sky.

Tanner and Eric were both gone, but that I already knew - those were the boys that had originally ambushed us. Then, there was Clarissa from Nine and finally, Cassandra, the girl Steve had taken out before coming after us.

It only then hit me that Steve hadn't run until I saw him. I know at least Danny and Sam had seen him before I, but he hadn't run. It was me that scared him off, but why?

* * *

_Thank you for giving out some straight answers, Jon. ^_^_

_Jon: So, can I have my own actual story now? Not just a random oneshot?_

_*glares at him* -_- Fine, I'll try to stray away from fanfiction... BUT IF IT FAILS I'M NEVER TALKING TO YOU AGAIN!_

_Anyway, now that I'm done yelling at Jon for being a pain in the ass, comments and feedback are as welcome as always! :D_

* * *

_Invisible One_


	20. Chapter 20

Sneaking up on people and making them jump out of their skins is just too easy, It also takes half the fun out of killing them, though I will admit it makes it easier to take them down. Catch a person off guard, and it's like taking candy from a baby.

Every sane person, and most of the insane ones, knows that the deal of the Hunger Games is that if you manage to kill everyone else, you get to live, your name is out of the drawing from now until you die, and you and your whole District is showered in gifts for the year.

I have a slightly sweeter deal. If I win, I get moved to the Capitol and they'll let me escape all the hideous tests they had planned for me before I'd taken up their offer to enter the Hunger Games. See, the people in charge don't give a damn whether I come out alive or not, they just need to keep me busy until they can figure out what the hell to do with someone who possesses my abilities. I somehow doubt they'll really let me off the hook if I win, but at the very least they'll have to scale back whatever they were planning and I don't have anything left to lose

You see, I have a gift that no one else does - I move between different versions of reality. I've been doing it since I was born, and seventeen years later, I have full mastery over it, at least I think I do. I'm no longer rooted to just one world, I can force my physical form to move right alongside my consciousness, essentially disappearing at will. I can even move my consciousness around independent when I don't have a physical form in a world at the moment. This allows me to easily appear out of seemingly thin air when I want to, though it's a little harder to do around the ghost boy; if I get too close, his ghost sense will find me first. I don't know why, I guess a consciousness without a body is all it really takes to be considered a ghost.

The one thing that is bugging me though is that Jon kid who runs right alongside Danny and his allies. There's something off with him, and I swear he knows a little too much for anyone who stays within the same reality all the time. He can't be a Jumper though, I'm the only one. I have to be the only one. They'd just kill me if I wasn't.

By the way, if you're wonder where the Hunger Games Trilogy came from, just thank me: Steve. I'm sure you enjoyed it.

* * *

Steve was due for another attack at any time now. He'd been after us all day, trying attack after attack, almost like clockwork. If it weren't for all the things I knew my odd group was capable of, I would wonder why he was so intent on taking us out first. The only thing that really confused me about him was that he always attacked alone even though he could never get past us.

That, and I swear there are times when my ghost sense will go off mere seconds before he shows up. I'm not even going to try figuring that one out.

A twig snapped off to my right, and I knew it was Steve returning for yet another attack, but I also knew he wasn't going to come from my right side. Based off his previous patterns, he was going to make an aerial attack as it was the only one he had yet to try.

I looked up, and sure enough, there he was sitting in the tree with that slightly creepy skin of his that seemed to be almost grey all the time. He held a bow in his hands, strung with your average arrow. Fritz saw this too and I saw him smirk before Jon smacked him upside the head; now I see what he meant about Fritz getting cocky just because he knew that arrow couldn't kill him.

There was a cannon shot off in the distance. I hardly paid it any mind, but Fish jumped, her attention distracted from the killer sitting in the tree above us.

The arrow was let loose, hitting Fish in the shoulder and she fell to the ground in an instant.

I knew that wound wouldn't kill her directly, but it could easily prove to be the hindrance needed to take her down in the end unless we found some way to heal it far faster than any normal human could manage. I pried her hand away from the arrow lodged about halfway through her shoulder and chilled the area around the wound before slowly pulling the arrow out. I know that under normal circumstances, pulling the arrow out before seeking proper medical attention would probably be a bad idea, but these were not normal circumstances by a long shot.

It was a nasty wound, there was no denying that, but I caught sight of something I hadn't been expecting. Her slowly developing ghost half was already taking care of the wound, quickly closing it over once the arrow had been removed. Sure, it was about a fourth of my almost instantaneous speed, but it was still significantly faster than any human could have managed. Her powers were developing faster than I had thought possible.

The wound was most of the way closed when the beeping of a gift caught the attention of all of us. It was for Fish, though I couldn't decide whether or not the note accompanying the few small biscuits was funny.

_**Victoria! Get your head in the game! We will not lose you to something so trivial as a lack of attention!**_

While the rest of us were holding back laughter without much avail, I heard Fish mumble to herself as she fell into an early sleep.

"My name is not Victoria. I am Fish. Or Tori. Tori works too." And with that she nodded off in the middle of the small clearing in which we'd stopped for a ten minute rest. It was looking like we were going to be making camp here tonight instead.

* * *

_I don't like this chapter...it can go die in that hole over there..._

_I know you guys want some action, and I am working on it...action is not my strong suit...at all... At least I gave you Fish's real name again. :)_

_On a different note..._

_Long story short, it is the start of a new semester and with the way my school does things, I no longer have any blow off classes. This could very easily cut into my writing time and while I'll try ot keep things updating on time, I am not going ot promise anything. Even though I would much rather be writing, AP World History crap and boring Algebra II have to come first in the long run._

_Anyways, comments and feedback are as welcome as always! (and perhaps a few suggestions regarding some action...that would be nice too...) :D_

* * *

_Invisible One_


	21. Chapter 21

Steve had made himself scarce today, in a complete contrast to his behavior yesterday. Where we couldn't get rid of him the day before, we didn't see hide or tail of him today. He was an odd character, and that alone was cause for anxiety in this kind of situation.

Then, there was Jon who had been deep in thought ever since our last encounter with Steve. I could tell he was trying to puzzle something out, but he didn't tell us what. That too was cause for alarm; if Jon didn't have an answer for something, we really were on our own with whatever it was.

And to top it all off, we still didn't have a clue how the hell we were getting out of the Games alive. I had an idea that might get us of out here, but I knew I wouldn't be able to pull it off with this many people. I was pretty sure they had used two different shields to keep both my human and ghost halves inside the arena, and the odds were that there was some kind of gap between the two shields. If I planned it right, it's possible that I might be able to slip between them and change forms depending on which I'm trying to get through.

The issue was not in finding some way of testing my theory before making the attempt, but in trying to figure out how to get the others out as well. I wasn't sure I'd be able to carry all of us and still pull off a transformation between the shields. If there were two less people, maybe I could pull it off, but it just wasn't going to happen with the current number. And here emerged the real dilemma. I couldn't carry everyone, but I also could not leave one or two of my group here to die. Maybe there's something I'm missing here that will make everything make sense and provide a solution, but I hardly have the time to think about that between keeping us all alive and trying to keep up with everything else going on in the arena.

So, for now, here I was, sitting around tonight's fire hoping and praying I can find some form of solution pretty damn soon or we're screwed.

Right as I managed to get my mind off the death that had and still would take place around me, the national anthem filled the air to ruin my few short moments of peace. I remembered the unclaimed canon shot from earlier and looked to the sky in time to see the face of the brown haired, brown eyed, girl from District 8, Alyssa, have her face fill the artificial night sky. One more death and not a damned thing I could do about it. Worse still, the many deaths to come that I couldn't stop.

Have I mentioned that life sucks right now?

* * *

Even from the dying T.V. screen, I could see the effect this whole ordeal was having on Danny. He was blaming himself for things he couldn't stop, no matter how hard he tried and slowly losing hope that things might just get better. My baby brother was breaking, and I couldn't be there to help him. I couldn't be there to knock some sense into him with the psychology he so dearly hated. All I could do was watch and search for that amazing plan that would make everything okay again. Search for the answer no one could really find.

I had seen him making plans of his own; several times I saw the same expression that came when he figured out how to win a fight cross over his features for a moment before it disappeared again. Either he'd realized there was a flaw to his plan or he knew it wouldn't let him save as many people as he wanted to. He wasn't willing to make any human sacrifices just to save his own hide, no matter how desperate he was to get out of there.

This is why I have to find some way of helping him. I had to find that one flaw in the making if these Games that would get them all out of that damned arena. I needed to help District 13 get into that arena. These people are trying, they really are, but they're getting nowhere. They can't find the weakness I just knew the shields around the arena had to have. I'll admit that it won't be any easy task to find the hole, but if anyone could do it, it was Dani and I.

Said ghost-girl walked in as her break started and the end of today's Hunger Games played out. "Any luck?" I knew she'd say that before she did, it was the same thing every day, but this time there was a new tone in her voice I couldn't quite identify. It took me a moment to realize she'd found the loophole we'd been searching for.

"No, but you have a plan anyway, so it doesn't matter much. What do you have?"

"Did your parents ever fix the ghost shield so that it would work on both Danny's human half and ghost half?" I thought I knew where this was going, I wouldn't say anything until I was sure.

"No, they never could figure out how to. As soon as they managed to trap his human half, he'd be able to escape with his human one."

Dani smirked. This was going exactly where I thought it was. "Well, if your parents couldn't figure it out, then there's no way those bozos in the Capitol did. The only way they could be sure to keep both halves in would be to use two completely different shields." I cut in.

"And with two different shields, there's a chance there might be a big enough gap between the two that he could possible change forms between the shields. He can get out."

Dani was silent for a moment. "He's had to have thought of that by now, so why hasn't he tried it?"

The answer hit me like a ton of bricks. "It's his damn hero complex. He probably knows he isn't strong enough to carry them all through the shields, so he's looking for another way. He refuses to let someone die just to save his own skin."

"Then we're just going to have to get him ourselves." She was right, but to do that, we'd have to find the arena, and god only knows how hard that was going to be.

* * *

_Have the update I somehow managed to get out while sick... I'm going to go curl up in a little ball and die now..._

_Comments and feedback are as welcome as always! :D_

* * *

_Invisible One_


	22. Chapter 22

There was something different in the air today, god only knows what it was, but there was something different it was the fact that everyone could tell there was something bothering Danny, or maybe it was the fact that Jon was almost acting, dare Isay it, socialable.

Okay, I'm gonna cut the crap right there. I knew damn well what was different, I just didn't really like the fact that I didn't have a clue what it meant. It was Ben, his energy had fluxuated a bit, several times within the past hour. Most people do have their energies fluxuate a few times over the course of the day, but never several times within the same hour. I could only hope it meant the abilities Jon said he supposedly had were finally starting to surface. Ben may not really believe in any of this stuff, but he would almost certainly figure out how the hell to control it sooner than I could.

I looked to the stick I'd been trying to coherce into moving for the last hour with frustration. I couldn't get a grip on the energy inside it and if I couldn't drop that, then how the hell was I supposed to move the damn thing? Jon said a form of telepathy would be one of the first things I'd figure out, so why the hell couldn't I get it?

Damnit! This was irritating!

I hated not knowing things. Let me correct that statement: I hated not knowing things I should know. Not knowing how these energy powers worked wouldn't be nearly as frustrating if Jon didn't know any more than I did. If he were helpful, he'd help me figure this out, but no. That would make life too easy for me. Thank you, Jon, for being the world's biggest pain in the ass and not helping when it could be the difference between life and death.

Calm down, Asa. This isn't his fault. Yes, Jon is a royal pain in the ass, but it isn't his fault you haven't figured this stuff out yet.

Well, maybe it is just a little.

No! I just need to approach the problem in a different manner. If I can't access the energy actually within an object and use that to pull it towards me, how else might I move it?

And with that, I found the answer. You don 't walk a dog by its collar; they make leashes for a reason. I was trying to atack the problem too close, to the source, I needed to back away just a little. You'd thunk I'd have learned to look at things from a distanced perspective after all those advanced Social Studies and History classes.

Those damn AP classes would be the death of me and all they did was really give a me as hot at an entire extra loaf of bread a day in the future. Woo. A whole extra loaf of bread! That'll keep life from being miserable.

Back on task, I tried a new tactic for moving the blasted stick. Rather than trying to grab ahold of the weak energy in the stick itself, I went after the much more abundant and lively energy swirling around it. As I suspected, it was so much easier to get a metaphorical grip on that than the stuff I'd originally been going after. I can't believe it took me that long to figure it out.

Jon must have noticed my success from his spot on the sidelines, and I knew it the moment I saw that evil little smirk on his face. "Took you long enough to figure it out."

Stick, meet Jon's head.

* * *

_That was short and pretty much pure filler... Sorry about that. My lack of pre-planning has caught up with me. I know where I wanna go, just not how I'm going to get there. Hopefully I'll have this straightened out by the next update._

_Anyway, comments and feedback are as welcome as always! :)_

* * *

_Invisible One_


	23. Chapter 23

Plans were bound to start falling into place any time now, they always did start forming right about this time in the Games. I did have to wonder what it would be this time, it always seems to change from world to world. It could be anything from a rescue mission to just blowing up the arena. With Fish's developing powers, it wouldn't surprise me if the second option was the one they tried in the end.

I had no idea whether or not they would actually make it out the first time, but I was going to do my best to make it happen. As I've said before, I've lost this battle several times before and I will not do it again. There are only so many times a person can watch their friends die before they lose their mind, and I fear I'm coming close to reaching that limit.

Then, there was Steve. He was an odd one that I just could not figure out. He was different from everyone else, yet at the same time familiar. I recognized something about m on an instinctive level, but I could not consciously figure out was it was. It was bugging me to no end that I could not figure out why something about him felt familiar. I do not think I have met him in any of the other realities, yet I can't shake the feeling that there is some massive link that I'm missing, one that would tell me why he felt familiar. If I couldn't figure it out, I could only hope there was some energy connection Asa, or even Ben, would find and that would be enough to answer my questions, but for now I could do little more than ponder on what the hell was going on.

* * *

There was a scream in the air, and I tried to force myself not care. Sadly, being a hero at heart, I did care and had to settle for not jumping up to go save whoever was screaming. Besides, if they weren't dead yet, they were probably doing a pretty good job of keeping themselves alive anyway. I could pretend they weren't my problem so long as I didn't see them.

Then, they came running into our camp and my mind decided that, yes, this was my problem. Antonio, Francis, and Gilbert all came running towards us, panting and out of breath, that was the only reason they weren't screaming.

Then, I caught sight of Steve and understood why the trio had been screaming as they ran. Even I had to admit that Steve was one scary little fucker. He could appear out of seemingly nowhere and had a damn good aim from even the worst of vantage points. If he wanted you dead, it was likely you'd be dead unless you had some sort of supernatural entity on your side.

Steve ran when he saw us, why I'm not sure, however it did tell me that he was really only messing with the trio of boys that had practically passed out in front of our fire. Had we been any other group, they would be dead right now, but none of us were really capable of killing people that weren't attacking us.

Antonio got up first, and I knew he was about to start really pushing my buttons when his eyes landed on Sam. Something lit up in his eyes, and I had to force myself not to strangle him as soon as I recognized it. There was a form if lust in his eyes. I had hoped I was wrong, but he disproved that when he opened him mouth.

"Why, hello there, beautiful. I believe I have yet to have the pleasure of meeting you." Oh hell no. This little bastard did not seriously think he could get away with hitting on my girlfriend, did he?

Francis got up next. "I have not met you either, my gothic princess." Francis grabbed her hand and kissed it. I was about to go over and personally kick both their asses, but the look in Sam's eyes told me she was planning something much more evil.

"Leave some for me, brothers. You can't deny me the pleasure of meeting the fair Samantha Manson." In that moment, I very nearly felt sorry for them. Gilbert had just called her Samantha, they were going to get one hell of a rant now.

"You did not just call me Samantha." One of here fiercest death glares was in her eyes as she stared poor Gilbert down. "My name is Sam, do NOT call Samantha."

"My dear, Gilbert ment you no offense, I'm sure." I could see the flirting was really starting to piss Sam off as her glare only darkened at Francis' words.

"Then I suggest you get the hell out of here now before I rip you limb from limb." Funny, I expected more of a reaction out of her. Antonio looked as though he was about to speak, but Sam cut him off. "Before you even think of saying something stupid, just remember this is the one place I can legally kill you and if it makes my chances of survival better, do you really think I'm going to hesitate much?" In that moment, I honestly believed she might just do it too if these guys kept it up. It's not often you get the chance to legally kill someone just because they piss you off, and I really didn't doubt she might just do it in this case. If it wouldn't make our own survival more likely, I knew there was no way she'd really kill a human being or any living creature, but we all knew that it was likely every one outside our group would have to die before we could really even think about saving our own skins.

"If that is how the lady feels, then we shall take our leave," Francis stated and just before the three of them could turn away, Sam did something I really should have seen coming. She grabbed me and pulled me in for a long, deep kiss, not unlike what had started...er...our activities the night before the Games started. I felt my face flush as I was reminded of that night. Good god, even after spending the past few days trying to just survive those memories were still fresh in my mind.

I forced those images away as Sam pulled away, still holding me close as the three idiots that had been hitting on her earlier just stared in shock. What? Did they honestly not know I was her boyfriend? Idiots.

Then I was forced to stare in shock as an arrow flew out of nowhere and hit Antonio, knocking him to the ground with a fatal head wound. Another arrow came flying towards Gilbert, and finally Francis too was shot down. By that time, everyone in our group was in alert, but after Francis went down, the attacks stopped. I barely saw Steve's retreating form before he disappeared all together, leaving the rest of us standing there just trying to figure out what the hell had just happened.

Why had Steve shown up just long enough to kill those three? Or was it just a simple matter of him realizing he couldn't get away with taking down anyone from my group? Have I mentioned that he is a scary little fucker? Normally, it would take more than that to scare me even a little (years of ghost hunting does that to you), but Steve seemed to have some level of freaky that we hadn't even figured it yet.

Well, we hadn't figure it out until Ben spoke up. Now, I would have thought it'd be Jon or even Asa who figured out what was off about him, but that wasn't the case. Ben was the first to figure it out.

"Steve...there's no way...Jon said it wasn't possible...but then again there were the books...what were they called again? Does it really matter? That would prove his theory though..." He started off just mumbling to himself, leaving the rest of us lost. "And here I thought she'd be the one to see it first...wait...how did I know someone would see it first? I really am losing my mind..."

"Okay, I really hate to interupt your little silioquy, but what the hell are you going on about over there?"

Ben just looked at Fish for a moment before he answered her. "I was talking out loud? I hadn't even noticed..." He stoped again before he seemed to literally force himself to speak up once more. "It just that Steve...I guess he just feels kinda like Jon does... I can't really explain it, but I fells like he isn't really here even though we see him all the time..." Yeah, I'm sure Fish wasn't looking for riddles when she asked him to explain himself. Thankfully, Asa seemed to understand what he was rambling about.

"You think Steve is a Jumper?"

"I don't know for sure...but it just feels like it somehow..."

I looked over at Jon and found that while he had that knowing smirk on his face, his eyes were clouded with something else, confusion and maybe just a hint of fear.

"On the bright side, Ben seems to be finding his own powers," Jon started, his mind clearly somewhere else in the world. "One the down side, it appears we are dealing with one hell of an adversary now." Joy. Just fucking lovely.

* * *

_Muhahaha._

_Yeah...I don't know what the evil laugh is about...I just felt like it..._

_Random rant...dealing with both Apple autocorrect and Word's autocorrect at the same time is annoying. As soon as you fix one's screwup, the other kicks in to make your life more difficult._

_Have I mentioned that I still don't have an actual computer? O.O_

_Rant over. Anyway, comments and feedback are as welcome as always! :D_

* * *

_Invisible One_


	24. Chapter 24

We were awoken sometime in the mid of the night by what would have been the faintest of alarms to the others in my group though they were loud and clear to me. It sounded like these shouts were coming from outside the prison of the arena, but there was no way to be sure with all the tricks these people we bound to have up their sleeves. But if it was coming from the outside, that told me someone had royally pissed some people off and that we were a lot closer to the shields than I thought we were. Two things that might work to our favor.

Then, I heard something that sounded way too much like Jazz's voice for my liking, followed by Dani's seconds later. This had to be an illusion, there's no way those two would be anywhere near here unless they were stupid enough to make a rescue attempt. They wouldn't do that, right? Neither one of them was stupid, so they wouldn't risk something like that unless they thought they had a fool-proof plan.

Did they come to the same conclusion as I had about the shields? Dani was my clone and Jazz was my sister, so it was possible and actually pretty likely. That didn't mean I had to be happy about it though. They weren't supposed to be here, they were supposed to be safely at home or wherever the hell Dani's been staying.

"Almost there." That was Dani's voice beyond a shadow of a doubt; even the best of illusions couldn't have mimicked that. If I wasn't paying attention, the sound illusions of the Capitol might fool me, but when I was listening with my ghost enhanced hearing, I could pick up on little things that no one was able to replicate. The tones broke down for me and every reproduction had the same undertone of technology that wasn't there when I heard her voice.

Shit. They were really here and if whatever plan they had created failed, we would all be put to death in some way or another unless some miracle occurred.

"What's going on?" As I half expected, Fish was the next one to pick up on the clamor going on outside. How fast was she changing? Even though I knew she'd hear it first, it should have been a little louder before she picked up on it.

I shook myself out of my thoughts, I could deal with that later, after I ensured that none of us were about to get killed, Jazz and Dani included. "I think Jazz and Dani are making a rescue attempt."

The look on Jon's face told me this was bad well before he actually spoke. "On your guard, all of you! In your terms, the shit is about to hit the fan." Oh. Joy, just absolutely wonderful.

The pair came flying through the shield overhead us and barely missed landing on poor Simon. There was a smile on their face up until several armed forces followed them. As always, Jon was right. The shit just hit the fan, time for the absolute joy of cleaning it back up.

"Get behind me." I forced myself not to growl at my sister as anger started to take over, I needed to be careful or I'd lose control entirely.

Jazz obeyed the order without a second thought and after a moment's hesitation, Simon realized I'd meant to include him in that. I've said it a million times, and I'll say it again, he's completely hopeless when it comes to combat of any kind. At least he knows to stay the hell out of the way now; he'd probably be dead by now otherwise.

On an instinct of sorts, we formed a three ringed circle with Simon and Jazz in the center. Our more powerful fighters where on the outside with everyone else sitting in that middle ring. I knew we could take these bastards out, but could we do so without losing anyone? I wasn't really sure of that, but there wouldn't be any fatalities if I could help it. Maybe I couldn't protect everyone, but I could sure as hell keep at least my friends alive.

The soldiers around us pulled out guns and I nearly laughed. Those things wouldn't be able to hit us. Fritz was actually invincible to them according to Jon, and between two and half half-ghosts, and an energy bender (I guess, I'm still not sure what to call Asa) we had more than enough power behind us to form shields of our own strong enough to deflect and shots, whether they be bullets or ecto-energy.

Even though I didn't laugh, I still lost my focus long enough that there was now a considerable burn mark on my left shoulder where the first ecto-blast had made contact. It was time to get my head in the game; I couldn't afford stupid mistakes like that. It would only piss me off, and I know enough about my temper to know it won't be pretty if I completely lose control.

Shields were up less than a second after that shot, but I knew there was something wrong, these guys were too confident. There should have been some form of deflation in their demeanor when our shields went up and rendered their attacks useless, but they weren't affected at all. What was I missing?

"Danny! Under you!" I looked down at the sound of Dani's frightened voice. And saw what I'd managed to miss. There was a steady pulse of light and I looked up just in time to see someone push a button.

"No!" I think I was the one that shouted out as I saw the explosion to start to unfold from underneath us. It took me a few seconds to realize something was stopping it and keeping it confined to the ground. I knew it wasn't the shields Dani, Asa, and I had originally thrown up, the ground was our one weak point, and while she tried, Fish just didn't have enough power to add to our shield yet. What was stopping it?

The fire under our feet died down and I saw Ben start to fall forward. Had he done that? It is possible; he's the best one of us at spotting key errors like a weakness in a yield near the ground and it would explain why it looked like he was about to fall over. He wasn't trained in his powers at all, and if he managed it at all it would have been n pure instinct and taken up a lot of energy.

There was a momentary flicker in our shield as Asa rushed to help Ben. The gap was there for less than a second, yet the bastards managed to get three shots in. one went after Fritz, which did exactly as expected and missed, and the other two hit Jazz and Simon. I felt a surge of energy as anger started to come into play more and more. Not only did these guys have the nerve to shoot someone under my protection, they also blatantly went after the two weakest people in our circle. That was not going to fly with me.

I was pissed and not thinking clearly when I let the shield drop altogether. The soldiers rushed forward and I watched almost every person under my protection go down. By the end of ten minutes, only Fritz, Sam, and I were still standing. The others were still alive, but they were out of this fight.

Then, I saw one of them grab Sam from behind, restraining her long enough to hit her with the butt of their gun and knock her out. I saw her fall to the ground with the others with gash on the side her head.

That's when I lost it. I went into a blind rage as I lost control, something I didn't even know I was capable of doing until that point. To this day, I don't remember what I did, all I remember is when I claimed down, there were dozens of dead soldiers on the ground and the rest were running like hell.

"What did I just do?" I tried to remember, god knows I tried, but there wasn't a single memory from the past several minutes.

"You scared the shit out of them, and honestly out of us too." Fritz was the first to speak being the only one still unarmed.

"What the hell just happened?" I was still trying to make sense of things as I saw Dani get up and slowly make her way around to check on the others.

"Best I can tell, you snapped and did one hell of a number on these guys." I gave him a look. I couldn't have done all of this, right? "Let me put it to you this way, if I had been in your way, I'd be on the ground right now." Damn, that was saying a lot coming from Fritz. I could never beat him in a sparring match, no matter how hard I tried, no one could.

As I looked around again, one very disturbing fact hit me. I just killed these people. Whether I was in control or not, I killed them.

What the hell was happening to me?

* * *

_Have chapter...I'm going to go mope about my forever aloneness now. Not really, I've seen the drama of boys...I'm going to stay away from it for now. :P_

_Comments and feedback are as welcome as always! :D_

* * *

_Invisible One_


	25. Chapter 25

None of my group had been killed, I guess I could take some form of comfort from that, but that did nothing for the soldiers lying at my feet. They sure as hell weren't innocent, but that didn't mean they had to die. More worrisome than that was that I don't even remember what happened when I snapped. Worse still, me losing control like that meant Dan had nearly come out. Oh, and let's not forget that now I had Jazz and Dani to worry about as well as everyone else. The odds of getting everyone out of here alive are looking slimmer and slimmer.

What the hell did I do to get on life's bad side? Maybe it was the fact that I was half dead and therefore not technically alive.

Dani confirmed that everyone would be okay after a few hours to rest since none the wounds had been too serious, just enough to take them out of commission. The fact that they only had minor wounds was probably the resul of me losing control. At least those bastards know the kind of power they're dealing with now; if I was lucky, they wouldn't go after us again.

We hadn't seen any more attempts at taking Jazz and Dani back out of the arena and that scared me. They had to have one hell of a plan if they were willing to go through all the trouble of explaining why there were suddenly two extra people running around the arena. I needed to get us out of here, and fast.

When most of us were pretty well recovered, I decided we needed to see if Dani and Jazz could still actually get us out of there or not. There was a good chance the officials had fixed whatever loophole they'd used to get in in the first place,

"How'd you two get in here?" I was pretty sure I knew, but I wanted to be sure first.

"They had to use two different shields to keep you in here. We just took advantage of the gap between them." Just as I had thought, this probably meant we needed a new plan for getting out here. What that would be, I wasn't sure yet.

"They've probably fixed that by now, but it's worth a shot to see if that gap is still there." Dani nodded even though the comment had been mainly to myself and flew up into the tree above before reappearing only a few moments later.

"The gap is still there, but it's not big enough to transform in anymore."

"So, in other words, we're screwed," said Sam.

"If that route's been blocked off, how the hell are we getting out of here?" As Fish spoke, we all looked to Jon. Sadly, he didn't have any more of a clue than the rest of us.

Maybe that's a lie though, because one of us did have an idea, he just wasn't in any condition to say so immdiately. It wasn't until half an hour later that Ben finally spoke up.

"We get out the same way they nearly killed us off." He face palmed as we all gave him a quizzical look, completely lost.

"Alright, bright ones. Why were they so confident when our initial shields went up?" Oh. Duh.

Everyone else suddenly came to the same conclusion as I finally had as well, but it was Jazz who was the first to question it. "What makes you think they'll have the same weakness we did? If they were smart enough to find it with us, what makes you think they missed it in their own plans?"

"It's fifty-fifty. Either they aren't sure of themselves and made damn sure to fix that bug, or they're overly confident and made the same mistake we did. Knowing them, they aren't being careful enough to fix something like that, Dani and Jazz wouldn't have been able to get in if they were being that careful." He shrugged as if the whole thing should have been self explanatory. "It's pretty much a given to me, I guess I just see it as a game of chess." Joy. Another chess obsessed person for me to deal with, just what I wanted after the last one turned out to be a complete frootloop. On the bright side, it did partially explain where he learned to strategize.

"When do we make the attempt? It seems a bit too early for that now." Dani was right, it did seem too early to make such an attempt, leaving now would make it way too early for these people to suck us right back into the arena if they found us after we escaped, but the longer we stayed here, the more likely it was we were going to lose a life before we got out if here.

I sighed as I came to a decision. "Tomorrow, the sooner we try, the better chance we'll have of success. If we wait too long, there's a chance they'll find and fix their error." There were nods of affirmation all around, but in the back of my mind I couldn't shake the feeling that something was going to at least partially screw this up.

* * *

They were making an escape attempt? I couldn't let this pass me by. Maybe I was mostly aligned with the Capitol, but I wanted out of here as badly as they did. Even if the Capitol did find me again after they got out, I could always say I was just trying to keep tabs on them, trying to make sure they didn't cause too much trouble. So long as I didn't voice my motive aloud, this wouldn't be too hard.

The only thing was that there was no way they were going to willingly let me tag along, not after all those attempts on their life. Oh well, it's not like one hitch-hicker was going to screw them over, even if they weren't going to know I was there until it was too late to put me back.

* * *

_Yes, I missed an update, deal with it. There really is no real reason for it unless you count a case of depression as a real reason. I'm back now though, so be happy!_

_Comments and feedback are as welcome as always! :D_

* * *

_Invisible One_


	26. Chapter 26

We decided to stay through the night and go for our escape tomorrow. I briefly wondered why there hadn't been any more Capitol directed attempts at our lives, but shrugged it off; Fritz had said I'd gotten pretty damn scary when I lost control during their last attempt.

I still couldn't get over the death I'd caused during that fight. That really was bordering on what Dan would have done, I have to keep myself in control. No one ever said Plasmius absolutely had be involved for Dan to come out to play.

There was a beeping overhead, the kind that came with a gift. Why we were getting a gift I didn't know as anyone on our side was bound to have figured out what we were planning to do during our next escape attempt. I couldn't think of anything they might think we would need and somehow I doubt the Capitol was dumb enough to try bombing us again.

The gift floated down, coming to a rest in the branches just above our heads. I flew up to grab it and found some food inside, accompanied by a note.

Read when an S becomes a T and MAGIC is the key.

Joy. Riddles. At least that part of it made sense, the rest I couldn't decipher, but strongly suspected I should have been able to.

Gioe ujf mieemf aoe hmz tusaihju epxo, xf'mm df xaiuioh gps zpv.

Thank you for writing in a version of what I assume to be English which I can't understand.

I stared at the stupid thing in confusion for a few moments before Fish walked up behind me. "Where's a stick?" I gave her an odd look. Why the hell would she need a stick?

She must have known what I was thinking and gave a mockingly exasperated sigh. "I know how to translate it, Clueless One."

Jon handed her a stick a few moments later and she promptly sat down in the dirt with it and began to slowly write out the message, speaking to me as she did so.

"It really isn't that difficult. All it is is a simple slide code with a slight variation so that it takes a little longer for prying eyes to figure out. The letters are all one off with the exception of those used to spell the word "magic." You leave those letters alone and act as if they don't exist when you get a different letter that would be it. If you saw a D you'd translate it as a B instead of a C." By the time she finished her speech (which I was only half listening to), Fish had managed to decode our message.

Find the middle and fly straight down, we'll be waiting for you.

"About the only thing I can't tell you is if this came from your parents or someone else. Either way, we supposedly won't be alone if we can get past the damn shields."

It then hit me that any Capitol officials watching us now knew exactly what we were planning. "And why did you think it'd be a good idea to say that where the whole world could hear?"

"Because they won't be paying attention to us just yet. They're probably still busy trying to explain where Dani and Jazz came from while trying to find something else to keep the audience entertained until they know what bull crap they're going to pull out of their asses this time. The cameras may be around, but we aren't being watched." In an odd sort of way, her logic almost made sense, but I still wasn't convinced there was absolutely no one else that knew what we were up too.

My train of thought was broken as I saw a slight shift in Ben's behavior and Asa suddenly became ever so slightly more aware of him. I could tell he was about to run, but I also knew to let her deal with it. She is the only one that knows how to draw him back out every time he runs off. Jon can manage it if it's just a small breakdown, but with the way he was acting, I had a feeling it wasn't going to be something Jon could take care of.

And just like that, he was up and running through the trees with Asa only a few feet behind him.

As Ben made a run for it, I realized that everyone here was royally fucked up in some way or another, but we all had someone there to help us through it. Even Jon and Fritz had each other, though they still swear they're both straight. I normally wouldn't make assumptions, but I'll honestly believe that the day I see one of them with a girlfriend.

* * *

I don't know why I ran, I just did. I needed to run, needed to get away from the...bad vibes coming from one of them. I don't know who was causing them, but I wanted to be as far away from it as possible. One of them felt like death. Not half dead, like Danny, but dead dead. One of them was going to die, I don't know who, but one of them isn't going to make it out of here alive.

The right number of people will escape, just not the right combination.

I had to get away from that feeling. I had to get away. I had to.

* * *

_Hey look, an update. And only five minutes until midnight... Technically, this update is on time...even if I did miss the last one. I've missed the same update twice in a row, but I'm going to make an attempt at getting two chapters out over the weekend to make up for it. I can't garruntee anything, but I'll try._

_Comments and feedback are as welcome as always! :D_

* * *

_Invisible One _


	27. Chapter 27

Why had they been gone so long? It was worrying me, so I got up went looking for them. It probably wasn't the brightest thing in the world to do as the admittedly weakest link in our team, but I did anyway. Me, Simon Alexander Fitzgerald White.

Why did I never realize what a mouthful my name is until now?

I found them pretty easily, something I knew was quite a feat considering my tracking skills were nearly nonexistent. Ben was sitting up with his knees drawn to his chest with Asa clearly trying to coax him back out of his mind but it appeared as though this was a worse breakdown than normal. He didn't seem to be responding to much at all, but she just kept at it.

I moved forward a little and she gave me a nod of acknowledgement before returning her focus on the task at hand. He snapped up when I took another step forward though.

"It's you..." I didn't have a clue what he was talking about and just stared at him quizzically.

"What is it about him, Ben?" Asa asked, clearly relieved that something had finally gotten a response out of him.

"Don't you feel it? The black energy...it's following him." This worried Asa and left me completely lost. Black energy? What did that mean?

"Are you sure?" Asa knew what that meant, and I could tell it wasn't anything good by the look on her face and the tone of her voice.

Ben only nodded in response.

I took off in a run of my own as my brain started to piece together various things that could mean, the most prominent being the prospect of death. He thought I was going to die, he could feel that I was going to die.

So much for doing something worthwhile before my death.

* * *

_This was initially meant to be a mini-chapter in case I couldn't get anything else up tonight and it still is in a sense._

_This is the bit you're all going to hate._

_This is going to be the last update you'll see for at least two weeks. Why? Because for my own reasons, I need to get away from the fanfiction and the whole DP fandom for a little bit. The things I see within the show and its characters is only making somethings harder for me. Sorry, but I really need to get away from it for a while for my own mental/emotional health._

_I am NOT abandoning this story or any of my others, there just will not be any updates for a few weeks._

* * *

_Invisible One_


	28. Chapter 28

_I HAVE RETURNED._

* * *

We waited for a while before Asa and Ben came back; we didn't see them again until roughly twenty minutes after Simon returned from what ever the hell he'd been doing.

With perfect timing, I heard shot after shot being set off around us right as our group had been completely reunited, but none of those shots were aimed for us. What the hell was happening? I heard screams in the distance, but each one was closer than the last.

The best I could gather was that the Capitol finally lost what little bit of a mind it still had left. From there, I really hated what that made these screams look like. They were killing all the remaining Tributes and odds were, they were planning to pin the "honor" on me.

"We need to get out of here, fast. Dani, do you know where the center is?" The ghost girl nodded, pointed off to our right and started flying. She moved quickly, not so fast that the normal humans wouldn't be able to keep up, but fast enough they were struggling. I eventually had to just say "screw it" and carry Simon over my shoulder.

My ghost sense kept going off, but I didn't put any thought behind it; I had more important things, like the rapidly approaching gunshots, to worry about. I had already heard five, there were only three left before it got to us, and that was assuming they could actually get Steve. That guy is scary, but I have no doubt that he knows how to survive things like this.

Dani stopped abruptly as shot number six was heard not too far off, quickly follow by number seven. My bets were still on Steve being the last one alive.

"Here, give or take a few trees." I gave her an odd look. "You did realize those trees are evenly spaced on all sides, with the exception of a few clearings, right?"

"I've kinda had more important things to worry about." I could see her fight the urge to roll her eyes. She knew this wasn't really the time for that sort of thing.

At that moment, both Dani and I had our ghost sense go off. Steve appeared out of nowhere, his arms wrapped rather tightly around Sam. "You guys aren't leaving me here to die."

"Says the guy who tried to kill them multiple times to the group of friends who really can't take an extra person." Dani had her green energy dancing around both her fists. The only reason I hadn't done the same was because I saw the outline of a knife hidden up Steve's right sleeve.

"I guess you'll just have to figure out how to let me tag along then." The knife came down from his sleeve and was suddenly at Sam's neck. "Try anything, and she dies with me." Sam was trying her best not to let her fear show through, but I could see it just below the surface.

"Guys, don't try to blast him or anything. Even I wouldn't be able to get a clean shot on him." Damn. There goes that option. If even Fish can't get a clear shot, no one can.

"So, you gonna take me or do I get to kill her?" Fucking bastard. Sam was the only reason he was still alive at this point.

"I'll stay." We all looked to Simon in shock. "What? All I've done is mooch off of all of you guys just for my own survival. The least I can do is try to make sure you all survive." He looked over at Ben and Asa. "They already knew I was gonna die anyway, might as well make it mean something. If I stay, the rest of you can get out alive."

"You sure? We can find another way." Jazz's voice of reason cut through the sudden tension in the air.

"I'm sure. I can't keep dragging you guys down forever." I thought there was going to be something more to his statement, but he never got a chance to say it after Fish ran up and kissed him.

To say Simon turned bright red after that was an understatement. "Th..thanks."

"YA lyublyu tebya. You're a good guy, Simon." Fish smiled at him. I understood her Russian perfectly from my Gift of Tongues, but thought it better to let Fish keep that confession between her and Simon. This was their moment, and if she wanted the rest of us to know, she'd tell us eventually.

"et amo tu." Even in Latin, I could still understand Simon's response. These two were each perfectly quirky and really were a good match for each other. It's such a shame it had to end this way.

That was all they got before a shot narrowly missed Fritz's head. I'm assuming he's been killed by a bullet already and that's the only reason it missed him.

"We need to go, now." I had to agree with Jon, though there wasn't really anyway to go against him without relinquishing your sanity.

We huddled up, Dani and I on opposite side of the circle. Just as we were about to lift off, another shot rang out, hitting Simon and going through his head. He fell to the ground with as much grace as a corpse can.

The last thing I saw before we phased through the ground was a small patch of roses, now drenched in poor Simon's blood.

* * *

_Noooooo...SIMON! DON'T DIE ON ME!_

_JON! Why the hell did you make me write that?_

Jon: ...because that's part of the story?

_*glares*_

_YA lyublyu tebya. - I love you._

_et amo tu. - And I love you._

_Anyway, I have returned and would greatly appreciate your comments and feedback! :D_

_OH! And there is also new content on the Glog Fish created a long time ago. The link is on my profile._

* * *

_Invisible One_


	29. Chapter 29

We flew through the ground, and just as I thought there wasn't actually going to be anyone, I saw the Ops Center drop the camouflage it'd been holding. I landed on the floor inside feeling slightly numb from everything that had happened just minutes ago. Fish was across from me, stubbornly refusing to let us see her cry over Simon's death. Just a I thought she might let herself break down, she ran over to Steve who promptly found her knee in a highly uncomfortable place. I didn't blame her, honestly it was the threat of Dan alone that kept me from killing the little bastard myself.

Would it count as murder if I turned my back on him should he ever find himself in a life or death situation?

"What the hell is wrong in that fucked up little head of yours, asshat? You managed to threaten Sam, kill Simon and nearly get the rest of us killed within the span of a five minute timeframe. How the fucking hell could anyone be that damn heartless? Did you want to fuck a few lives up? Cause, congratulations, that's what you did, you little fucktard!" She kneed him between the legs repeatedly throughout her little speech. She was beyond pissed, and with good reason too, but that wasn't what told me something was off. Steve never moved, regardless of how many times he was kicked in the family jewels. Then, I noticed energy around Fish gradually coming together with each word. It finally hit me, she was losing control and even though I really had to think about saving Steve from that kind of wrath after what he'd done, I also knew the Ops Center would likely go down if she let that energy get released.

I summoned my courage as I approached the raging girl, she was honestly starting to scare the shit out of me. "Fish, as much as I would love to continue watching Steve suffer, if you don't stop now the ghost energy around you is going to take this whole ship down."

I saw Fish take a few deep breaths and the visible green energy around her gradually dissipated as she calmed down her rage and Steve promptly fell to the ground clutching his crotch and whimpering.

Then, she started shaking as the tears she'd tried to hold back finally came out. Sam and Jazz ran to her, unintentionally pushing me away as both of them were better at dealing with emotions than I was. Even though Sam was Goth and generally disliked human contact, she was rather good with emotions when she wanted to be and would be there when those closest to her needed her.

I moved over to Steve, the gentleness I'd used with Fish long gone from my voice. "Count yourself damn lucky that that much pure ghost energy would have screwed all of us over if she'd released it in here. I wouldn't count on me stopping her if it happens again." I was slightly scaring myself with my voice, but that was the intended effect. I normally wouldn't let myself get like this, but Steve had crossed several lines that could not be forgiven.

There wasn't much time to morbidly amuse myself with the expressions on Steve's face before something else caught my attention.

"They're behind us! Why they hell are none of you paying attention to what's behind us?" Ben looked like he was about to go into another one of his breakdowns, one of the last things we needed right now.

"We are looking behind us, there's no one there," mom said from her position in the front seat next to dad.

"We aren't the only ones with the damn cloaking technology and if you don't get rid of them now, everything is going to go to hell!" Something in the back of my mind told me we really needed to listen to him. Even though he seemed capable of little reasoning outside what was happening inside his mind when he got like this, Ben was also often right with his predictions while in this state.

Asa closed her eyes for a moment before speaking. "Shit. He's right. There's a lot and they're in a tight formation. Just start shooting blindly and just about anything except right down the middle will hit something or another."

Mom gave them a quizzical look, to which I nodded in response. "Trust them, things like this are what they're best at." I wasn't sure whether or not that was true, but I knew we didn't have time for mom to be questioning their every move. Though it did strike me as odd that she didn't just accept it without thinking about it after everything that had happened in the Games. Maybe she just wasn't used to their odd way of conveying information between one another and everyone else. I have to admit, until you get used to it, it can be kinda hard to trust the word of a boy who looks and sounds like he's in the middle of a mental breakdown.

Mom started firing at random, and sure enough all but one shot hit something in the air. The only one that missed had gone straight down the middle, just as Asa had predicted.

Then, the invisible ships behind us started firing back, and our on board defenses when down within the first few shots. I searched frantically for ideas until I came across one that might save our hides.

"Mom, turn the cloaking on. Dani and I can make the ship intangible at the same time." If we pulled that off, they wouldn't be able to see us or locate us from their shots bouncing off the outer shell of the Ops Center.

"We can't afford to do that, Danny. To keep up the cloaking long enough to get them off our tail, we'd run out of energy before we even got back to base." Shit, mom had shot that idea down before I could even try it.

"I'll supply the energy, just get us the hell out of here." I looked to Asa in surprise.

"Are you sure you can pull it of? She gave me a look that asked if I was really going to question her right now only a moment before Jon spoke up for the first time since we'd gotten here.

"She can do it. It's highly likely that she'll be on bed rest for a few days after this, but she can pull it off." We had learned long ago that no one questions Jon, so I put a hand on the wall and turned half of the ship intangible while Danielle carried out her end of the silent order. I heard the cloaking come online as Asa sat down and closed her eyes, the energy visibly swirling around her as she worked.

Several shots went straight through us as we flew, but after a few minutes, I noticed that the shots were being fired with less and less accuracy and they slowly stopped coming all together as they realized that no one could find us like this. We were safe for the time being, thank god. I was tired of fighting to keep myself alive.

* * *

_I did manage to finsih this during Night School...then my iPad died on me...before I saved. -_-_

_I am pretty sure this will be the second to last chapter of this part of the series, but I really don't have a name fpor the third part... I CHALLENGE YOU ALL TO GIVE ME SUGGESTIONS! MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!_

_Seriously though, if you have a suggestion for the title of the third part of this series, please feel free to tell me! :D_

_Secondly, Jon managed to talk me into writing him his own seperate story and it is on Fiction Press, under the title of From One World to the Next. My username is the same as it is on here._

_Comments and feedback are as welcome as always! :D_

* * *

_Invisible One_


	30. Chapter 30

We made it back to what they called base a few hours later. I'm not sure if it really took that long, but it sure as hell felt like it after keeping up the intangibility act the whole trip there. It wasn't as draining as it would have been if Dani hadn't been there, but it still wiped me out. My powers hadn't had a proper chance to restore themselves over the course of the past few weeks, and while it did little to my health it still left me weaker than normal. If I had to deal with Vlad now, I'd probably lose considering I'd only recently gotten past the point of ties with him to actually being able to kick his sorry ass.

I wasn't paying attention to where we were when we landed. Under normal circumstances, it would have probably been a really stupid move, but nothing about the past year, much less past few weeks, could even pretend to be normal. We touched down in a compound that looked pretty new, but I couldn't remember ever hearing any announcements from the Capitol about a new building development. I looked around, trying to figure out where the hell we were, but my mind could not give me any answers.

Fish seemed to sense my confusion as she often does when ever I'm completely clueless about something. "I swear Danny, the day you stop being so damn clueless is when pigs fly and Hell freezes over a few times. We're in District Thirteen, Danny. Also known as the Rebel Base." I would have asked various questions about how long this has been here or how the Resistance manages to stay under the radar, but a girl only a year younger than Fish came up to us right about then.

"It's about time you got home. You were taking so long I nearly thought you'd done something stupid to get yourself killed."

Fritz rolled his eyes. "Thank you for your undying confidence in me, Megan." The sarcasm dripped from his voice. I looked between the two more closely, recognizing the playful banter already as being the variety that goes between siblings. I didn't see it at first because this girl, Megan, was a brunet while Fritz was blond, but other than that their facial structures were pretty alike. Well, what do you know, Fritz had a little pain in the ass of a sister.

"That's what I'm here for." Yup, definitely a younger sister.

The pair walked off with Jon, and just before they got out of ear shot, I heard Megan make a death threat, to which Fritz's only response was to ask Jon if she could actually kill him like that.

Fish must have heard it to because I heard her chuckle just as she walked up beside me. "It's rather amusing how those two are some of the quietest people in the whole base, yet they explode with playful banter as soon as they get into the same room." I saw a hint of sadness in her eyes. "I can't blame them though, they really are just trying to hang on to something they're familiar with."

I looked at her funny and she continued. "Their parents were a part of our old system of runners for carrying messages between districts, then their mom got caught on a run. She was killed on the spot and the Capitol sent their "Peace Keepers" to take them and their dad as well, claiming that merely being married to a runner of the Resistance was enough to convict him. He was guilty, but he still fought it and the end result had Fritz and Megan watching him get shot in front of them. The only reason those two are still alive is because that was right when we found Dani and she managed to get them the hell out of there before the Capitol got ahold of them." She stopped for a moment in silent thought before speaking again. "It's a sad story, but I really think the only reason they both haven't lost their minds is because they have each other and something to fight for. God only knows what would have happened to them if Dani hadn't gotten to them in time, even if the Capitol didn't take them."

"Who takes care of them now?" They had to have someone other than just each other, right? Even if it was just an adoptive family.

"They take care of themselves." I gave her a look and she shrugged her shoulders and explained. "Fritz is over fifteen, so by our standards, he's old enough to take care of both himself and his sister. Megan turns fourteen in a month, if I remember correctly. The only reason she wasn't forced into a foster family when Fritz left to be in the Games is because everyone in the compound respects them both as if they were adults. They've been through a lot and it forced them to grow up fast, even by our standards. Hell, Megan is more of an independent adult than most of the people in our civilian workforces." Wow, I couldn't imagine the shit holes Megan and Fritz had to go through to get to where they were today.

Then, one detail about Fish's story about them hit me.

"Fish, if the Capitol killed their parent's they would know who Fritz and Megan were when they saw them, right?" Fish nodded. "So why the hell did the Capitol let Fritz into the Games instead of just killing him as soon as they saw him?"

"Danny, they didn't kill him on sight because it would have been a lot harder to cover their tracks if Capitol Officials were seen killing a seemingly innocent boy. By letting him into the Games, they figured they had almost a guarantee of taking him out without getting their hands dirty. He was sent there to die, just like every other Tribute and if he hadn't been with us, he would have been killed by some "natural" disaster."

I was about to make another comment, but one of the unnamed guards (soldiers?) that had been assigned to taking care of Steve had come up to us. "Sir, what do you want done with the unauthorized passenger?" It took me a moment to realize he was addressing me, but why?

"Why are you asking me?" I was utterly confused. As far as I knew, I had no authority over this guy.

Fish stepped in for me. "Take him to a holding cell, and ghost proof it. That guy has an odd way of getting away that I haven't figured out yet."

The soldier dude looked to me for approval, but I still didn't know why. Fish face-palmed. "Just take my order for now, and if he wants something different, Danny will change it later. He doesn't know his position yet and he's too clueless to figure it out on his own." The soldier seemed to take this answer for now, though it might have had something to do with the sliver I saw enter Fish's eyes as she spoke.

"Would you mind telling me what that was about or why he seemed intent on getting my approval."

Fish put a hand on my shoulder and I knew she was about to drop some bomb or another on me. "Your mom and I were going to tell you this on the way here, but we were kinda busy not getting killed. You're third in command here, Danny."

* * *

_This is the second to last chapter in this installment (I think...I hope I didn't say that in the last chapter...), and I still odn't have a real title for the third installment. I'm still asking for any suggestions on a title! :D_

_Comments and feedback are as welcome as always! :D_

* * *

_Invisible One_


	31. Chapter 31

"Wait, what?" That was real intelligent, Danny. Surely you could have thought of something a little more sophisticated to say.

Oh, shut up.

Wow. I'm talking to myself as if I have two different people in my head. It's official, I'm going crazy.

Fish gave me one of her "are you freaking kidding me?" looks before she spoke. "In terms you might actually understand, you have one whole hell of a lot of power over what goes on here, whether you want it or not, you have it. You are third in command, and you aren't getting out of it until at least the end of the war."

"No, just no. I don't need any power over other people. I don't want it, don't give it to me." Nope. Not gonna happen. I was not going to take this position. It was most certainly not something I needed, much less actually wanted. I'm fine with helping with this war effort, just don't put me in charge of anything.

"It doesn't matter whether you want it or not. You have it and you're stuck with it. You aren't the only one who thought it was a bad idea, but that didn't stop it from happening." Fish chuckled. 'Your mom's words went something along the lines of "Do you seriously think it's a good idea to put a ghost powered teen who's been through multiple traumatic events in a position of power?' That didn't stop them, it just earned her a spot right above you. She's second in command at the moment." Seriously? When the hell were these decisions made and why were they done without me?

"So mom's number two, what does that mean for me?" I was really trying to ignore the fact that I was in a spot only one behind her. Would someone care to tell me when I asked to get so much crap put on my shoulders? I have enough going on as it is, I don't need this too.

"Essentially, it means your mom can still pull rank on you if you become too much of a defiant pain in the ass." Fish smirked at me "She mentioned something about how it wouldn't be right for a teenager to have more political power than their parents." She stopped, clearly debating about whether or not it'd be a good idea to tell me the next bit. "I don't think you're going to like this, but I have a really strong feeling that you two didn't get your positions based purely on your qualifications." Well, no shit. I don't have any qualifications as far as I'm concerned. "Vlad's first in command. Tell me it's not a coincidence that your mom, who we all know he's still pining after, and you are second and third in command, right behind him. He's still trying to steal the two of you and leave your dad in the dust. Hell, Jack hardly has any form of control over the soldiers here, and if it hadn't been for Maddie's insistence, he'd be completely powerless." Vlad was going to pay, and it would be at my hands at the rate his sorry ass was going.

I sighed in resignation, realizing I couldn't do anything about this right now. "I guess I'm really stuck with it, huh?" She nodded. "So, where do you fall in this chain of command?"

"The original leader of the rebels takes seat number four. Danielle is five, then Sam, me, Jazz, Tucker, Jon, Asa, Ben, Fritz, and a couple more adults I can't name off the top of my head." Wow. Either Vlad has some master plan I can't unravel for the life of me, or he's losing his touch. Why the hell would he make his list of commands consist of teenagers? What do we supposedly know that he thinks will help his cause? I've said it before, and I will likely say it a thousand times more, Vlad is a complete and utter frootloop.

Sam came jogging towards us. "Mrs. Fenton said you two needed to stop screwing around and get upstairs. There's a meeting about to take place and you are to, quote, 'get your asses up there before I strangle you two and Vlad.' She's ever so slightly irritated, just in case the Clueles One missed it." I laughed, and momentarily considered ditching it just to see if mom would really strangle Vlad. I decided against it though, this was war and if I was going to be forced into a position of power, I really needed to at least figure out what the hell was expected of me.

It's time to quit playing around and get this over with.

* * *

_MUHAHAHA. I HAVE MANAGED TO GET THE LAST CHAPTER OF THIS SEGMENT OUT! BE PROUD OF ME, I COMMAND YOU! :P_

_So...I got...exactly no suggestions for a title for the next portion of this series. As a result, the title part three will be posted under is "Phantom Downfall." It's a working title, and while it won't change between now and when I post it, it is open to change if I find something better for it._

_Comments and feedback are as welcome as always! :D_

_...now...to make sure I don't fail my midterms..._

* * *

_Invisible One_


End file.
